


Infinity Train: Boiling Point

by Exotos135



Category: Infinity Train (Cartoon), The Owl House (Cartoon), 宝石の国 | Houseki no Kuni | Land of the Lustrous (Anime & Manga)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Amity Blight Angst, Amity Blight Has a Crush on Luz Noceda, Anger, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Arrogance, Bisexual Disaster Luz Noceda, Boscha Has Anger Issues, Boscha is a Savage, Boscha-centric (The Owl House), Brutal Boscha, Brutality, Character Development, Character Study, Confused Amity Blight, Consequences, Crack, Crossovers & Fandom Fusions, Developing Friendships, Developing Relationship, Fire, Gay Disaster Amity Blight, Good Friend Luz Noceda, Insecurity, Loss of Innocence, Luz Noceda is a Good Girlfriend, Magic, Magical Accidents, Magical Artifacts, Magical Bond, Magical Girls, Mythical Beings & Creatures, POV Female Character, Potions, Pride, Protective Amity Blight, Protective Skara, Self-Doubt, Self-Esteem Issues, Self-Hatred, Self-Worth Issues, Strong Female Characters, Touch-Starved Amity Blight, Trains, Tsunderes, Witchcraft, Witches
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-03-06
Updated: 2021-03-16
Packaged: 2021-03-16 10:55:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 4
Words: 20,633
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29699487
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Exotos135/pseuds/Exotos135
Summary: Boscha had an... interesting way to see the world. There were the "Strong," who ruled the world, and then there were the "Weak," who struggled to survive said world.She used to think she was one of the Strong. That she was one of the Strongest. That she was... an Apex...But now... she's not so sure anymore...
Relationships: Amity Blight & Boscha, Amity Blight & Luz Noceda & Willow Park, Amity Blight/Luz Noceda, Boscha & Skara (The Owl House)
Comments: 12
Kudos: 17





	1. The Strong and The Weak

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Infinity Train: Blossoming Trail](https://archiveofourown.org/works/25303468) by [Green_Phantom_Queen](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Green_Phantom_Queen/pseuds/Green_Phantom_Queen). 

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Boscha attempts to help Willow in her own way, and a certain omniversal train picks her up.

_Welp, like I said, here's the first full chapter of Infinity Train: Boiling Point! This is gonna be an intense ride, so I hope you're ready for some... chaos._

_Before we begin, I'd like to thank Green_Phantom_Queen for giving me some ideas on how to go on with this story. She's the author of Infinity Train: Blossoming Trail, a Pokémon, Silent Hill, and Infinity Train crossover that's a pretty good read and the inspiration for this story._

_Just get your stomach and mind ready, 'cause it doesn't pull any punches with the drama._

_This chapter's mostly the day where Boscha gets into such a bad state that the Train picks her up._

_So, without further ado, let's go!_

* * *

Boscha still had trouble wrapping her head around what just happened.

She and her team just had a Grugdby match against a... peculiar team. More specifically, a team that included Amity Blight, a former teammate of hers, Willow Park, a prodigy regarding plant magic, and... Hexside's first Human student?

Luz Noceda was probably her name, but Boscha wouldn't know. She only ever called her "Human."

The game had gone exactly as she expected: with her team winning. Mostly thanks to her. After all, _she_ was not only the captain, but the best player of the team.

And yet, what should've been a great victory.... didn't feel like it. Sure, she won, there was no way people could deny that. But seeing her teammates acting nice with the other group...

It felt like the game was pointless: why did she bother trying to win if she felt nothing but defeat?

"Hey there, Boscha."

The three-eyed Witch turned around, and to her relief, she saw the bard student known as Skara, one of her only friends... actually, scratch that, her only actual friend.

"Hi, Skara," Boscha sighed. "So, have you and the girls stopped pamperinh Amity's group?"  
  
"I wouldn't say we were pampering them, just congratulating them for a good game," Skara replied as she sat next to Boscha. "Even so, yeah, it's over. I came here to check up on you. Are you okay?"

"Pfft, what kind of question is that!?" Boscha scoffing with a chuckle. "Of course I'm fine! Didn't even break a sweat the entire game!"

"I didn't mean physically..."

Boscha's arrogant poise slowly vanished, replaced by a begrudging sigh of acknowledgement.

"No... I don't think I'm fine... in fact, I think I'm terrible-"

"Okay, that's good enough!" Skara interjected with an uneasy giggle. "Hey, how about we hang out after school? Maybe some fresh air would help you clear your mind?"

Boscha rolled her eyes. All three of them. "Wouldn't you rather hang out with the ones who won the Grudgby match?"

"I mean, I would, but the rest of the team beat me to it."

Boscha quickly covered her mouth before her laughter could escape it. She didn't know why, but there was something about Skara that always managed to cheer her up no matter what.

Not that it mattered when not too long after, the team of Amity, Luz, and Willow appeared.

"Hi there, Boscha!" Luz chirped, waving her hand. "That was a pretty good game! The best Grudgby match I've ever been played!"

"It's the only Grudgby match you've ever played," Boscha dryly pointed out.

"I know, but still, it was pretty enjoyable!" Luz turned to Amity. "Right, Amity?!"

The partial greenette flinched and avoided eye contact, blushing as she spoke, "Uh, y-y-yeah, i-it was... it was f-fun."

Someway, somehow, Amity had found a way to disappoint Boscha even more. It wasn't enough that she left the posse, and it wasn't enough that she chose to go Soft to hang out with the Weak. Now she was just acting like an utter doofus.

And this wasn't a sight Boscha was willing to stomach.

"Good game too. Now if you excuse me," Boscha stood up. "I have to do something-"

"Wait, before you go!" Luz called. "I wanted to thank you!"

Boscha raised an eyebrow. "For what, exactly?"

"Well, remember when you threw that fiery Grudgby ball at me? I think I discovered a glyph that lets me use fire magic!" Luz reached for her back. "Here, let me show you-"

"I insist, keep it to yourself," Boscha interrupted. "Last thing I need right now is for you to mess up and burn this place to the ground. Let's go, Skara."

The dark-skinned bard nodded, and she waved goodbye and congratulated the group before joining Boscha.

* * *

The rest of the day was fairly average, at least, for a bard student. Skara learned a couple new melodies that attracted a certain type of magical creature, and she played those tunes in her flute, hoping to memorize them for the next day-

***SMACK!***

"Stupid fairies!"

Skara stopped her flute playing and looked at Boscha wiping some fairies off her body.

"Of all the melodies you could be taught today, it had to be one who attracted fairies?" the three-eyed Witch complained. "And do you really need to play it now!?"

"I'm sorry, Boscha, but I have to do this: how else am I supposed to memorize the melodies before this week's exam?" Skara shrugged and looked around. "Anyway, what are we looking for? I feel like we've been walking around in circles for a while now."

"Hmph, don't be impatient, Skara; we're getting close."

"Well, I'm not so much impatient as I'm worried: we should've gone back home as soon as we got out of Hexside and-"

"There it is!"

Skara flinched and turned to where Boscha was pointing at. Right where her finger was pointing, there was a large, oddly humanoid tree that was... walking around?

"Wait... is that-?"

"A Mandragora!" Boscha rubbed her palms and smirked. "Just perfect! Now if only we could only distract it somehow..."

Skara hummed. "I think I remember a song that entrances plant creatures. I should be able to entrance the Mandragora just the same."

"That's the Skara I know! Smart and reliable!" Boscha chirped with a sincere smile, causing Skara to blush. "Alright, I'll go hide somewhere nearby, and you get that thing's attention!"

Skara nodded with a determined expression, and Boscha hid inside a bush. With that done, Skara whistled, and got the Mandragora's attention in an instant.

Skara took a deep breath, and closed her eyes as she played a soft, slow melody on her flute. The Mandragora's glowing eyes suddenly turned from white to purple, the beast taking a couple steps towards the bard student as the melody continued.

This kept going for a while... until Boscha jumped out of the bush and planted her hand inside the Mandragora's chest, the creature too entranced to notice.

Boscha clenched her fist as hard as she could, then pulled and pulled until she ripped something straight out: it resembled a massive seed, but the beating and veins covering it made it clear that it was the creature's heart.

Unfortunately, the visceral sounds that came from the removal prompted Skara to stop... at which point the Mandragora returned to reality.

"Boscha, what the?!"

"You did your part very well, Skara," Boscha stated as she clenched the heart tightly. "Now, it's _my_ turn."

Boscha inserted her remaining hand on the hole in the Mandragora's chest, causing it to scream in pain.

" **Firebolt!** "

The hole glowed a vibrant red, and the beast's mouth, eyes, and cracks around its body gained a red glow that intensified as it cried in pain until eventually, the Mandragora was incinerated from the inside, leaving behind nothing but dust that was promptly blown away by the wind.

"Hmph, piece of cake," Boscha smirked. "Come on, Skara, our job here is done."

The bard student stood stunned for a moment before she snapped back to reality and followed the three-eyed Witch.

"Hey, Boscha, if you don't mind me asking," Skara frowned. "What are you planning to do with that heart?"

"Elementary, dear Skara," Boscha threw the heart in the air and grabbed it again. "I'm gonna do what I do best."

* * *

Once back at home, at the kitchen, Boscha took out the Mandragora heart and placed it next to a cup filled with water, and a grinder.

Or maybe it was a shredder. She didn't know, it was that thing Humans use to shred food to bits.

Boscha cleaned the heart until it was completely clean, then began grinding the viscera into the cup. The resulting bits somehow resembled flakes, to boot.

"The movie's ready!" Skara chirped, suddenly barging into the room. "Let me know when you're done to play it!"

"Got it, Skara!" Boscha replied, focusing solely on the grinding. "What movie did you pick for tonight?"

"Your favorite one!"

A brief, joyful smile formed around Boscha's lips, but it vanished slightly as she focused on the heart.

"Do we really have to do this?"

Boscha raised an eyebrow and threw a confused look at Skara, who leaned against the doorframe.

"This whole... prank?"

"You can call it a prank if you want," Boscha turned back to the seed-shaped heart she was grinding. "But I like to think of this as, an exercise."

Skara blinked twice. "An exercise?"

"Today's Grudgby game opened my eyes to a lot of things," Boscha lowered her eyelids. "How things have changed since Amity became friends with that... Human..."

"Luz Noceda's her name, I think," Skara hummed. "And I've also heard that she and Willow are trying to rekindle their friendship-"

"And that's the part that bothers me," Boscha interjected. "Or at least, what _Amity's_ doing."

"And that means?"

Boscha sternly put the heart and grinder down. "She's being a bad influence!"

Skara took a step back and clutched her chest. "I-I don't think I understand..."

Boscha let out a small sigh. She couldn't blame Skara for not getting what she was saying; the amount of people who could understand her thought process without an explanation would be her parents and... actually, just her parents.

And the less she thought about them, the better.

"Fine, let me explain: in this world, there are two types of people: The "Strong" and the "Weak." The Strong rule the world and the Weak with an iron fist, while the Weak try to survive living under the heels of the Strong. But between these two types, and even above them, there are _many_ different variations."

"Is Amity a variation?"

"She is... the _worst_ variation... a Soft," Boscha gritted her teeth with disgust. "A Strong who has _rejected_ some of their strength to put themselves at the level of the Weak. A Strong who would rather _lower themselves_ for the Weak. A Strong who would rather _sacrifice their own growth,_ so the _Weak don't have to grow and better themselves!_ "

Boscha took several deep breaths to try calm herself down, her eyes sporting a dangerous red glow that slowly vanished alongside her rage.

"I once thought Amity was one of the Strong. That she was one of the Strongest, who would help and protect the Weak while guiding them. But I was wrong. And now, she's gone Soft."

_Thanks to that damn Human..._

"And so," Skara hummed. "You think she's being a bad influence... because-?"

"Instead of forcing Willow to grow and develop like she used to, she _lowered_ herself to her level, stunting _both_ their growth in the process!" Boscha took a deep breath. "But, the good news is, I'm not Amity. I'm not a Soft. I'm a Strong; one of the Strongest... an Apex."

Skara grimaced. "Apex?"

"Someone who not only _protects_ the Strong _and_ Weak alike, but forces them to _grow and better_ themselves. That's what I am, Skara. I'm... an _Apex_."

Once the grinding was finished, Boscha crushed what remained of the heart and watched some liquid pour into the cup, giving the drink a green color.

"And tomorrow... I will give her no choice but to admit it."

Skara hummed for a moment, then walked off to get the movie ready. Boscha then moved the liquid around with a spoon, internally hoping that this would get the job done.

'Cause if it didn't...

* * *

The next day came, and while walking across the Hexside hallways with Skara by her side, Boscha looked at what she held in her hand: a potion with the green liquid stored inside.

"So, what exactly's the plan for that potion, Boscha?"

"You don't need to know everything about my plan, Skara," Boscha replied, ruffling Skara's hair. "You just need to play your part after I do mine, okay?"

"Uh, okay... what am I supposed to do again?"

"Just go get Willow when I tell you to."

Skara nodded with slight unease, and kept walking by Boscha's side. Until eventually, they reached what they were look.

Or in this case, who they were looking for: Amity Blight.

"Hmhmhm, there she is," Boscha smirked. "Now, Skara, stay here and watch."

Boscha held the potion close to her chest as she approached Amity, caught her breath... and said the one thing that always managed to get her attention...

"Amity Calamity!"

Her childhood nickname.

"Boscha?!" Amity shouted, getting defensive as she snapped her locker shut. "W-What do you want?!"

"I just wanted to congratulate you for the Grudgby match yesterday! It was a great game!" Boscha sighed. "Sadly, I wasn't in the best state of mind back then, so I couldn't give you a proper trophy for it."

"Oh don't worry, we don't need a trophy," Amity folded her arms and smirked. "Beating you and proving you're not as hot as you think you are's a good reward on its own."

_Don't incinerate her, don't incinerate her, don't incinerate her, she must be alive so Willow can prove her worth!_

"Anyhow," Boscha revealed the potion. "I made a little something for you! It's a drink that'll help Willow expand her horizons and-"

Boscha snatched the potion back as soon as Amity tried to grab it.

"You didn't let me finish."

"I don't need to!" Amity growled. "Knowing you, that potion's got something on it! Poison, paralysis, just something that'll hurt Willow!"

_Any worse than your own, condescending Softness has hurt her?_

"Well, I was gonna give this to you, so you could give this to her," Boscha walked past Amity. "But clearly, that was a mistake, so I'll go do that myself-"

Amity grabbed the back of Boscha's uniform. "Don't you dare."

"Dare to do what?"

"You know what I mean!"

Boscha faced Amity with a smug smile, then offered the potion to her. Amity snatched, opened it... and then threw the potion to the ground, spilling its contents entirely.

But unlike what Amity expected, this didn't remove the smug smirk from Boscha's face.

"What's so funny?" Amity glared. "I just destroyed your potion! You can do _nothing_ about it now!"

Boscha snickered. "Oh, _really_?"

Without warning, on the ground the liquid was spilled, a pair of arm-like vines sprouted and grabbed Amity's body as the ground shook... and a familiar creature emerged.

"A Mandragora?!" Amity exclaimed.

"Ding ding ding, we got a winner!" Boscha clasped her hands. "The potion was created using the grinded heart of a Mandragora, with a little blood from it for good measure."

Skara's eyes widened. "That's why we went Mandragora hunting, didn't we? To create an artificial Mandragora?!"

"Is there a problem with it?"

"You could've made a dozen different potions with a Mandragora heart, and you chose to make the most dangerous one!" Skara pulled her hair. "You've gotten away with a lot of things, Boscha, but this is something even Principal Bump _cannot_ turn a blind eye at!"

"Whether he turns a blind eye doesn't matter," Boscha looked at Skara. "What matters is that a _certain someone_ from Amity Calamity's demise."

Skara stood stunned for a moment, shocked at the fact Boscha would go so far for a simple lesson. But she soon realized standing still wouldn't help anybody, so she bolted in search for Willow, leaving Boscha and Amity behind to throw daggers at each other.

* * *

Luz wasn't quite sure what she expected when she opened her locker, but a letter written by Boscha was definitely out of the question.

However, what truly caught her attention was what was written on it:

_Human, this is Boscha. If you haven't crumpled this letter and thrown it away after saying that, then let me be blunt with you._

_It's become painfully clear to me that Amity has a thing for you, just as how it's clear that you can't see the obvious hints. So I'll be blunt._

_Amity likes you. Not as a classmate, not as Grudgby player, not as just a friend, or any other dumb stuff you might be thinking of. She likes you as a love interest._

_She loves you romantically._

_Unfortunately, I know Amity well enough to know that she won't take the first step even if her life depended on it. She's extremely stubborn, you see._

_So, if this relationship is to bloom, and Amity is to stop making a fool of herself, the responsibility falls onto your shoulders, Human._

_So, I'm asking you... begging you... take the first step, and go out with Amity. I fear that's the only way she'll stop humilliating herself._

_With high expectations, Boscha._

_P.S.: If you tell anybody I said anything on this letter, I'll burn you alive._

Luz closed the letter and put it on her pocket, taking out some of her books before she closed her locker.

Amity was in love with her? Sure, she had been acting a little weird since they became friends, but Luz just assumed Amity had no idea how to be friends with a human.

But if Amity was in love with her-

"WILLOOOW!"

Luz jumped and turned around, barely getting a chance to catch her breath before Skara ran up to her, visibly panicking.

"Where's Willow?! It's urgent!"iiii

"Skara, calm down," Luz asked. "Take a deep breath and tell me, what do you need Willow for?"

"It's Amity! B-B-Boscha, p-potions, m-m-m-mandragora! _Danger! Need Willow now!_ "

Luz nodded and grabbed Skara's hand. While she was lost as to the full message, she did understand that Amity was in danger and that Willow could somehow help her.

"Follow me."

* * *

Boscha only expected Amity to annoy her today. But right now, she had trouble believing what she was seeing.

A couple students stood around as Amity formed circle after circle, trying to do some kind of damage to the artificial Mandragora, but to no avail.

Amity trying to ruin Willow's time to shine was already bad enough, but the students standing around doing nothing were even worse. One of their classmates was in danger, the most popular student at that, and the best they could come up with was stand at the sidelines and look worried?

_Cast a spell! Get a teacher! Do something to actually show you care that Amity's life is in danger!_

Granted, Boscha probably would stop them if they tried that, but trying and failing was better than not trying at all!

"Amity!"

Finally, Skara came back with Willow and Human!

"What happened here?!" Willow asked. "Where did that thing come from?!"

"It's all Boscha's fault!" Amity snapped. "She brought a potion that could revive a Mandragora into the school!"

Boscha just shrugged with a cocky smile.

"We gotta do something about this!" Luz stated. "I might have some glyphs that-"

"Will magically fix everything?"

Luz froze, and when she looked up, she saw Boscha glaring at her, smiling smugly as she said:

"Do you really think it's gonna be that easy? I'll admit that you've been making quite a lot of progress, Human, but just because you make progress doesn't mean you can fix everything. There are dozens, if not hundreds, of creatures and ailments that you don't know about! And this just so happens to be one of them! I mean, what were you planning to do, use a fire glyph to burn it away? I hate to tell this to you, Human, but if there's anybody here that can do something about it..."

Boscha faced Willow and pointed at her.

"It's her!"

"M-Me?!" Willow exclaimed.

"You're a prodigy with plant magic, and Mandragoras are nothing more than walking, sentient trees," Boscha folded her arms. "If you can use your magic to control the Mandragora, you can make it release Amity! And before you start asking for alternatives, there are none."

Boscha faced Skara. "Isn't that right, Skara?"

Everybody faced the bard, who lowered her head as she explained:

"When a Mandragora is revived, it takes the strengths and weaknesses of the ground from which it sprouted. If this Mandragora had been revived on a forest or the like, it'd be exactly the same before death. But since this one sprouted from Hexside, it has as much endurance as the building, and a resistance to all kinds of magic except plant magic."

"And there you go: there's only one thing that can be done, and that's for someone with proficiency at plant magic to take control of the beast," Boscha narrowed her eyes. "So what are you waiting for? Take control of the Mandragora, or else Amity might not be long for this world."

But then, the Mandragora cried in pain. And a single look revealed why: Principal Bump had ripped out the creature's heart, crushing it so it would crumble to dust.

He then caught Amity as she fell, and put her on the ground as he turned to Boscha and stated:

"Boscha, I'd like to see you in my office."

* * *

Boscha had no idea why she was here. Okay, that was a lie, she knew why she was at the principal's office, what she didn't understand was why the principal was looking at her with disapproval.

She had just finished explaining why she revived the Mandragora, and how it was for the better so Amity could stop babying Willow. But given his expression, her words fell on deaf ears.

"So, to try convince Amity that Willow wasn't as weak as she thought, you revived a Mandragora, which could potentially hurt other students if it wasn't stopped?"

"Willow could've stopped it! Scratch that, she _would've_ stopped it!" Boscha snapped. "She's more than capable enough to do it!"

"Strong enough to do it, perhaps, but she's not capable. No matter what you've been lead to believe, Boscha, strength and capability aren't one and the same. For example, look at the new student, Luz Noceda."

_Ugh, that damn Human again?_

"She's capable of casting magic unlike anything we've seen before, but she's not that strong: she's actually weaker than most students here."

_She's stronger than Amity. That's all that matters._

"Save the condescending ignorance for another day, Bump," Boscha growled. "What do I have to give you so we can leave this thing in the past?"

The principal took a deep breath and clasped his hands.

That wasn't a good sign.

"Boscha, we've been through this before. Many times, I've let you slide from the consequences of your actions. I even humored the idea of letting you get away with murder. But with this stunt, you could've endangered the entire school. And that's not something I can let you get away with."

Goddammit, Skara, of all the times you could be right, why today!?

"Therefore, while your family's power is far too great for me to expel you, I'm giving you a full week suspension."

Suspension!?

"That'll give you more than enough time to think about what you did."

This was an outrage! An insult! An... outsult!

Why was she being punished like this!? All she did was try to teach Amity that Willow didn't need a babysitter, and she was rewarded with suspension?! What kind of sick joke was this!?

"I... I..."

"Boscha, we're done with this discussion," Bump stated sternly. "Now please, go to your classroom. Your class is about to start."

* * *

Ever since the Mandragora event, Boscha was... well, there was no easy way to say this nicely: she was far more terrifying than usual.

No energy, no arrogance, no cocky smiles, _nothing_. Just her head hanging low while she walked, refusing to see the world around her.

Skara knew that when Boscha was either quiet or refusing to see the world, things were bad, but both at the same time?

She was a time bomb waiting to happen.

"So, uh, Boscha," the bard student blurted. "W-Would you like to come to my house?"

Boscha said nothing.

"W-We could practice spells, or dance while I play a little tune, or... or... j-just... hang out?"

Still nothing.

"Boscha, I know today was a bad day, but you can't let it get you down. S-Sure, your plan didn't go as you had planned, but it's not the end of the world. I'm sure after this week-"

But then, Skara noticed something: Boscha was walking away from Hexside... and straight into the forest.

Skara followed her cautiously, hoping that Boscha's lit was still a few minutes away from making her explode.

But before long, and to her shock, Skara found herself and Boscha in the middle of the same spot where the Mandragora was originally killed...

And then, Boscha stopped.

"B-Boscha?"

The three-eyed Witch clenched her fist, and gritted her teeth, snarling like a rabid dog as her eyes began glowing red...

"Bo-"

"GRAAAAAAAAAAAH!"

The ground beneath Boscha scorched up as she began jumping up and down, summoning and throwing fireballs at the surrounding trees while yelling at the top of her lungs:

"Damn you, Amity! This is all your fault! All you had to do was convince Willow to help and you would've learned your lesson! That Willow didn't need you to hold her hand! And yet you screwed it all up!"

"B-But," Skara stammered, keeping a fair distance away from the volatile Witch. "Principal Bump was the one who suspended you-"

"KAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!"

This time, Boscha's screams echoed across the forest... and straight to Hexside.

A fact Skara quickly realized.

"B-B-Boscha, they're gonna come here! After that massive shout, there's no way they won't come investigate!" Skara exclaimed, slowly approaching the Witch. "I know you're angry, but you gotta calm down!"

"AND YOU GOTTA LEARN YOUR PLACE!"

Boscha aimed her palm at Skara and released a fireball, striking her shoulder hard enough to make her slide back...

And with this action, Boscha paused and regained her composure...

"Oh no... nonononono, Skara!"

Boscha ran to the bard's side and helped her stand up: Skara gritted her teeth and groaned as steam came from her shoulder, the piece of the uniform covering it not only incinerated, but revealing notable burns.

"Oh no, I'm sorry, I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to-"

"Boscha!" Skara snapped, shutting up her friend. "Listen to me... you gotta run!"

"What?!"

"The Mandragora incident already put you in a bad spot, but injuring another student? If Principal Bump... no, if _my parents_ find out about this, they're gonna want your head in a pike!"

"They'd go _that_ far?!"

"That's the bare minimum they'd do!"

Skara put a hand on Boscha's cheek.

"Boscha, listen to me. Your last scream was so potent it was probably heard all the way over to Hexside. Somebody's going to come here, and if they see us both together... well, you already know. So please, run away!"

"But what about you?!"

"I'll be fine... with an injury this bad, I might be transferred to the Healing track, like I wanted to."

Boscha began to tear up. "Skara..."

And so did Skara. "Go, now!"

The three-eyed potion student took a couple steps back, then began to ran deeper into the forest. But not before she faced Skara one more and mouthed:

_I'm sorry._

Skara smiled and mouthed back:

_I know._

And so, Boscha ran as Skara fell to her knees, groaning in pain as a group of Hexside students reached her... and among those students were Amity and Luz.

"Skara!"

* * *

This day was officially Boscha's worst day ever.

 _First_ her Mandragora plan wound up a complete failure. _Then_ she got suspended over it. And _now_ she was on the run after accidentally hurting her only friend in a fit of rage.

And even if she was found, what would come next? An expulsion and death sentence, perhaps, especially if Skara's parents had as much political power as her parents had lead her to believe.

It was too much. _Way_ too much.

"Can this damn day get any worse!?"

A sudden, vibrant green light startled Boscha and stopped her on her tracks. The Witch opened her eyes, and in front of her was... what were those Human vehicles called again? It was long and consisted of a bunch of cars connected to one another.

Was it a rollercoaster? Boscha decided to go with that for now.

Once it stopped, the rollercoaster opened one of its doors, revealing a green portal that didn't show what was on other side.

The offer was obvious, comically so, but Boscha couldn't really refuse it. Not when she couldn't back down at this point.

So, against what her mind told her, Boscha walked through the portal... and in the blink of an eye, landed somewhere nice.

Well, as nice as an academy in ruins could be.

"Out of the way!"

Boscha stepped to the side, and a... peculiar entity ran... well, _floated_ , past her: a crystal ball with the most simplistic face she had ever seen.

"Oh, wait a minute!" the ball exclaimed. "Are you a passenger?"

"... Passenger?"

"Sorry, force of habit. Can you do magic, is what I meant?"

Boscha opened her palm and summoned a fireball before dissipating it with a clench of her fist.

"Oh, that's perfect!" the crystal ball chirped. "I'm so sorry to ask this of you, but could you help me drive away the intruders?!"

Boscha faced the academy. "The ones inside that place?"

"I mean, it's the only building on this car..."

Boscha hummed about it for a moment. She did need some stress relief after what just happened, and since Skara wasn't around, she wouldn't need to worry about hurting her again...

"Hey, crystal ball, what's your name?"

"My name?" the crystal ball asked. "It's Chris, why?"

"Well then, Chris," Boscha flashed a confident smirk. "Take me too those intruders."


	2. Healing Shards / The Mana Academy Car I

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Skara heals her shoulder, Luz and Amity become a couple, and Boscha discovers an oddly-named group on the Infinity Train.

_And here's the next chapter of Infinity Train: Boiling Point! This one will continue where we left off last chapter, and if anything, I can guarantee that Boscha will be quite complicated by the end of this chapter._

_Also, I'm gonna start incorporating more crossover elements from other shows, but the one I will NOT do is Silent Hill. At that point I'm just ripping off Blossoming Trail._

_Also, I don't want to. XD_

_Once again thanks to Green_Phantom_Queen for inspiring me to make this story._

_So, without further ado, onto the chapter!_

* * *

_Alright, Skara, while I can't transfer you to the Healing track over this injury, I can at least permit the nurse to place a healing glyph on your shoulder to speed up the healing. However, I want you to head home as soon as you can, understood?_

Those words echoed in Skara's mind as she walked down the hallways, her burnt shoulder not only covered in bandages, but with a glowing glyph marked on them.

Nobody looked at her as she walked down the hallway, though she wasn't quite sure why. Then again, this was better than the looks of distrust she got in general, so she had little reason to complain.

"Skara, wait!"

The dark-skinned bard stopped and turned around, her eyelids lifting at the sight of Luz running up to her.

"Oh, thank goodness you didn't leave!" she said. "How's your shoulder doing? Are you feeling well?"

"Um... yeah..." Skara glanced at her shoulder. "It feels a little weird with the healing glyph and everything, but I'll get used to it." she raised an eyebrow. "Do you... need something?"

Luz scanned her surroundings, and once she verified nobody was looking, she took out a crumbled piece of paper that, once unfolded, revealed a very familiar letter.

"I found this letter on my locker before the Mandragora attacked," Luz whispered as Skara grabbed the letter. "You hang around Boscha most of the time, so, I was hoping you could tell me if this is good or bad."

Skara quickly skimmed the letter, but paused upon seeing a particular sentence:

**With high expectations.**

That statement was no joke, especially from Boscha. And to think the one getting this message was the only human in Hexside...

Skara glanced at Luz, who was having trouble standing still.

"Are you done? You're done aren't you? Give it to me straight: is it good? Bad? A _prank_?!"

Skara flashed a smile and pocketed the letter. "How about we go eat something while we talk about this?"

"Gasp! Am I in trouble?!"

Skara shook her head. "Not at all. Trust me, it'll all make sense soon..."

* * *

Boscha walked around the ruins of the academy, her calm, disinterested expression being blatantly unfitting for the destruction that surrounded her.

"So, Chris, right?" Boscha raised an eyebrow. "What happened to this place? Why is it so messed up?"

"This is Mana Academy, an institution where magic-wielding passengers can learn to hone their skills in order to have a better chance at... well, _surviving_ their journey on the train," the sentient crystal ball explained as he guided Boscha across the place. "However, because there's a clear difference between magical potentials and the damage they could do, the building lowers all magical power within a passenger automatically."

Boscha narrowed her eyes as she attempted to use her fire abilities, but only manage to conjure a single fireball. "And that's how the intruders managed to cause so much damage, right?"

"Unfortunately, yes," the crystal ball frowned. "Despite having great magical potential, most of the students here don't have much physical strength. Or non-magical combat training, for that matter."

"Seriously?! Lacking one of those things is bad, but both? You're practically asking to be invaded and ransacked!" Boscha growled. "Look, is the whole "lower magical potential" thing something that can be undone? If this place is being attacked, then the students won't be able to do much unless they use their full potential."

"Hmm, I believe it can be undone, but we need to go deep inside the building, and there's the chance we'll come across some resistance-"

"Perfect, let's go."

Boscha walked away, and the crystal ball hastily got in front of her and guided her down the actual path.

The duo walked across several hallways, some more destroyed than others, with pieces of rubble laying on the ground.

"So, what else can you tell me about the intruders? Names, origins, favorite dessert, anything at all?"

"Well, I can only tell you what I got from their attack: they're a group of humans who pillage and ransack any car they come across, killing any Denizens they come across in the process," Chris hummed in thought. "Oh, and they go by a peculiar name. I think it was... the Apex."

Suddenly, Boscha stomped the ground and stopped, her eyes narrowing into a furious scowl as the aura of her fury was so strong, the living crystal ball froze in place.

"What, did you say, was their name!?"

Chris shivered, sweating all over his spherical body. "The... A-Apex..."

Boscha seemingly calmed down soon after, or at the very least, her aura didn't emanate the intent to murder anymore.

"Alright then, so they chose to call themselves the Apex. All I gotta do is find them and show them what a real Apex is all about!" Boscha looked around. "Say, are we getting any closer to the source of the magical stunting?"

Chris raised an eyebrow. "Magical stunting?"

"The thing that causes magical potential to lower."

"Oh, well, yeah, we're almost there," Chris grimaced. "We just need to check up on one more thing before we go there."

Boscha raised an eyebrow. "And that is?"

"Hello there, Chris."

The duo stopped, and turned around, spotting a blue-skinned, smiling bust with open eyes.

"Why am I not surprised that the first time you come to visit me it's when the academy's in danger?"

"Ma'am, this is Lapis Lazuli," Chris said, not taking his eyes off the bust. "She's one of many Denizens on the Infinity Train, and one of two who tried to assault the academy in the past. She now works as an exposition bust regarding safety measures; if anybody knows where to find the core of the stunting, it's her. At least, I think."

"Wow, so not only are you currently being invaded, but you've already been invaded once?" Boscha folded her arms. "And you learned _nothing_ from the first time it happened?"

"Truth be told, there was nothing to be learned from," Lapis sighed. "Phosphyllite and I... we were simply no match for their defenses. The Apex, the current invaders, just so happens to be stronger, both in cunning and in numbers."

Boscha narrowed her eyes and walked towards the bust, squinting her eyes while she stretched her hand towards her.

"Wait, what are you doing?"

"This third eye I got isn't just for show."

And then, Boscha put her fingers on Lapis' face, both the bust and the witch's eyes glowing as Boscha saw Lapis' memories...

* * *

_Lapis and a greenhaired, androgynous entity stood at the outskirts of the academy, back when it was in perfect state._

_"There it is, Phosphyllite," Lapis stated. "Mana Academy."_

_"It looks... like an academy," Phos remarked. "But are you sure there are Gems being kept inside?"_

_"I saw them: they were screaming and kicking as the heartless entities that govern the academy dragged them inside," Lapis lowered her head, frowning as she faked a concerned tone. "They said something about grinding them in order to use their magical properties, or something."_

_Phos gasped, and glared at the building. "We gotta get them out of there!"_

_"You mean you'll get them out of there."_

_Phos flinched and turned around, facing Lapis with shock as she explained:_

_"I'm a strategist, Phosphyllite. I'm not a fighter."_

_"But... neither am I..."_

_"That's what everybody thinks. But I don't. I can see that there's more to you than meets the eye, Phosphyllite. If there's anybody here who can save those helpless Gems, it's you."_

_Phos took a moment to process the information, then eyed the building, know what they were about to do was more than likely insane._

_And yet, they took a deep breath, and bolted forward, screaming as loudly as they could as they marched forward..._

_For a few seconds before several runes appeared from nowhere and sprouted spikes, piercing and shattering Phosphyllite's body instantly._

_And the most Lapis could muster at the sight was a disappointed sigh._

_"I guess I expected too much from you, Phosphyllite. At least, your sacrifice did confirm that assaulting this place was a bad idea. Time to go and regroup-"_

_Without warning, Lapis was decapitated._

* * *

Once the memory was over, Boscha and Lapis returned to reality, the former's eyes contorting into a furious scowl as she squeezed... until Lapis' face cracked.

"OW! What was that for!?"

"You know exactly what was that for," Boscha growled. "Now, it's time you put your part."

"Fine! Fine! I'll take you to the source of the stunting!"

"Good, and while we're at it."

Boscha turned to Chris. "Are Phosphyllite's remains here?"

* * *

"So, Boscha having high expectations of me... means that she _trusts_ me?"

That sentence alone made every gear on Luz's head turn. Until this point, Boscha had come across as the archetypical high school bully: mean, condescending, mean, malicious, mean, willing to rub her apparent superiority over everybody else, mean, did she mention she was mean? 'Cause she was really mean.

And yet, according to Skara, she only acted like that to _help_? Luz could only hope Skara's explanation could put things into perspective.

"Boscha doesn't see the world the same as we do. To her, there are only Strong and Weak people, and the Strongest of them all should protect and help them grow no matter what."

"So, going by what you said," Luz clasped her hands. "Boscha's only as mean as she is... because she wants to help?"

"Because she wants people to stand up for themselves," Skara clarified. "Think of it like this: there's two people, a bully and a victim. Two more people arrive, one fights off the bully, and the other helps the victim stand up and learn how to fight back. Which of these characters is Boscha?"

"Aw man, you didn't warn me we were gonna have a quiz! We're supposed to be at lunch!" Luz hummed and scratched her chin. "She's, uh, the bully! Nah, that's too easy... the guy who fights back? The guy who teaches how to fight back!"

"All of them."

Luz blinked twice. "All of them?"

"She's the bully, because she demeans and insults everybody she meets. She's the guy who fights back, because she doesn't stand by and let people stunt the growth of other people. And she's the guy who teaches how to fight back because, in her own, bizarre way, that's what she's doing."

"Oooooh... that's confusing," Luz raised an eyebrow. "Is that what she told you, or is it something that you came up with?"

"Something I came up with, but, let's talk about something else," Skara tilted her head. "How does it feel being the first student to do every single track in Hexside?"

"Well, if I'm to be completely honest, it doesn't feel any different than what I used to do back on Earth," Luz looked at the ceiling. "Even the teachers and I don't see eye to eye."

"Well, to be fair, you're the first student to study every track," Skara frowned. "And given your... quirkyness..."

"Yeah, I know, but they'll just have to deal with it," Luz flexed her nerd muscles. "I chose to study at Hexside and I'm not going away anytime soon!"

Skara smiled. "Now I can see why Boscha holds you in high regard. She'd definitely approve of that comment."

"I'll be sure to tell it to her when she returns, then!" Luz chirped. "Although, do you think she'll like it?"

"Again, she sees the world in a different way than all of us. I wouldn't be able to say."

Luz and Skara nodded in agreement and began to eat their food. They kept at it for a while, until a familiar voice spoke:

"Luz?"

The human turned around, and next to her were Amity and Willow, the latter looking visibly worried at Skara.

"Oh hi, Amity! Willow!" Luz patted the empty seat next to her. "Would you like to sit with us?"

"Sit with you? Sure," Amity glared at Skara. "Sit with _her_? I don't think so."

Willow promptly sat by Skara's side. "How's your arm doing? Has it healed?"

"Yeah, especially since the healing glyph has begun taking effect," Skara sighed. "I should be fully healed up by tomorrow."

"Wait, there's a healing glyph?!" Luz exclaimed. "I thought the nurse put a spell on you or something!"

"I told you about it as soon as you came up to me, remember?" Skara said.

"It's pretty much the same thing, Luz," Amity stated as she sat down next to the human student. "Even so, don't get cocky, Skara. Just because this wound will heal up in time doesn't mean Boscha _won't_ give you another one eventually."

Skara gritted her teeth, but kept her mouth shut, prompting a smirk from Amity.

"Amity, don't you think you're being a little mean?" Luz asked. "Skara's shoulder got burned, couldn't you be a bit more sympathetic?"

"Knowing her, Skara decided to stay close to Boscha even as she blew up, and she became collateral damage as a consequence," Amity raised an eyebrow. "Am I wrong?"

Skara narrowed her eyes, her good hand forming into a fist that shook viciously... but it didn't take long before it stopped.

"No, you're not."

Amity nodded. "But anyway, we should probably talk about something. You got something on your mind, Luz?"

"Besides my brain? Let's see..."

Luz noticed Skara's stare, and watched closely as she worded:

_Ask her out._

At that moment, Boscha's letter returned to Luz, and the human narrowed her eyes with determination.

"Actually, Amity, there is one thing," Luz turned to Amity. "Something I'd like to ask you!"

Amity blushed and flinched. "M-Me?"

Luz glanced at Skara, who nodded with an approving smile and thumbs up. Then, Luz grabbed Amity's hand and said:

"Amity Blight... _would you go out with me?!_ "

* * *

Boscha grabbed the blue sentient bust with a hand and held her over her shoulder as she and Chris walked across the hallways, Lapis taking the moment to explain some things:

"I heard from a trustworthy source that Gems were being held here, their magical properties being used to power up several items. While they couldn't confirm if they were the same gems as the ones from the Lustrous Car, I still felt compelled to come here and check it out for myself."

"But you didn't know if you could survive the security measures," Boscha narrowed her eyes. "And so you _used_ one of your friends to sate your curiosity."

"I wouldn't call Phosphyllite a friend, I'd say they're more like a co-worker," Lapis rolled their eyes. "And besides, if you think I did something wrong, they had it worse back in the Lustrous Car: being seen as useless by everybody around them, unable to do even the simplest tasks. You should've seen the smile they had on their face when I asked them to come with me on a mission."

Boscha wasn't quite convinced of Lapis' honesty, but she decided to leave that thought for later.

"Chris, could those two have managed to go into this academy if they just walked to the door and asked nicely?"

"They wouldn't have gotten close enough; going by the memory you just witnessed, they struck during the day, where absolutely nobody can get past the trap runes," Chris frowned. "We had to increase the security to such an extreme when the Apex began hopping onto more Cars."

_The Apex again? I swear, if end I up meeting any of those jerks, I'm gonna show them what a real Apex is like!_

"Oh hey, here we are!"

The trio stopped and looked around: they found themselves at a large library, filled with bookshelves after bookshelves filled with books of all sorts of topics.

"Why did we need to bring the bust to a library?" Boscha asked.

"Phosphyllite must be somewhere here," Lapis replied. "If we can find where the stones are being kept, I should be able to recognize their shards."

"Actually, are there even magical rocks in here?" Boscha glared at Chris. "Last thing I need is to find out those things didn't even exist!"

"Oh no, they do exist, we just keep them well hidden around here," Chris answered nonchalantly as he flew around, scanning the books. "After all, things would be very problematic if we left such powerful stones out in public, don't you think?"

Boscha rolled her eyes and began checking the bookshelves herself. Don't take this the wrong way, but she didn't quite know if she could trust a sentient crystal ball whose only real ability was to act as a guide for the academy.

So, in one of the weirdest moments in her life, she began searching the shelves... and then found something.

"Hey, Chris?" Boscha took out a book. "What's a copy of the Good Witch Azura Compendium doing here?"

"Oh, the academy copies magic-related books from all around the multiverse, and they get added here automatically."

"Can I take this with me?"

"I mean, you could, but depending on how long you stay on the Train, it might not be relevant by the time you leave."

_Skara loves this series, that's all that matters. I'll keep it to himself and see what happens. Besides, these books sell for a fortune, so I win either way._

Boscha saved the book... somewhere, and kept looking, though it didn't take long before she heard something open.

"Aha! I got it!"

The girl turned around and saw Chris standing next to an open bookshelf, revealing a secret entrance.

The logistics of how a crystal ball with no arms managed to open the bookshelf were tempting, but Boscha knew she had better things to do.

So the group walked inside, and down a hallway that showcased all sorts of rocks and gems, with some odd items thrown into the mix, like wands and stuff.

"So, what do you keep here, exactly?" Boscha asked.

"Just about anything with magical properties, really: weapons, rocks, cloaks, and the like."

"There are so many things in here," Lapis frowned. "I can only imagine how Phosphyllite is feeling right now."

"Oh, so now you care about them!" Boscha scoffed. "After throwing her into a barrage of spikes without a care, now you worry for their safety?!"

"I was decapitated and knocked unconscious. Even when I regained my senses, I was a bust; what was I supposed to do? Ask nicely if Phosphyllite was alright?"

_Excuses, excuses..._

"Oh no!"

The group ran to Chris, who hovered above an empty pedestal with "Phosphyllite" written on it.

"It's gone!"

"What's gone?!"

"The box! There was a box here that contained the shards of the one called Phosphyllite!" Chris scanned the pedestal with visible worry. "Somebody must've stole it when the Apex arrived!"

Boscha's eyes widened. "Or maybe even the Apex itself..."

"Well, goodness is that even if they stole it, they wouldn't really find anything of value with those shards," Lapis remarked. "Phosphyllite is many things, but magical isn't one of them. They'll probably just kill them if they get the chance. What a pity."

"... You know what? I think I've heard you long enough."

"I agree, so, could you put me back on my pedestal?"

Boscha chuckled to herself, tightening her grip on Lapis' hair as she did.

"No."

"Hmm?"

"Let me put it this way: ever since I saw your memories, you've done nothing but say things that either piss me off, really piss me off. And nobody pisses me off and gets away with it, especially when they betray one of their comrades in doing so!"

Boscha flashed a sadistic grin. "And so, I think it's time for a punishment!"

Before Lapis could reply, Boscha raised her bust high, and slammed it against the ground, shattering it completely upon impact. Even the hair shattered into bits, as if it was just as crystalline as Lapis' body.

With that done, Boscha threw away the hair left in her hand, and dusted herself, walking away as Chris looked at the shards... and saw them flinch.

"Um, Boscha, I don't think that was enough," the crystal ball said as he floated by the witch's side. "I could see the shards flinching for a moment. There's a chance her consciousness is still there."

"By that logic, Phosphyllite is in a similar situation," Boscha responded. "And I don't know about you, but I don't give two Palisman droppings about Lapis right now. Let's just go look for those shards and get out of here."

Chris hummed. "Boscha, is there any particular reason you wish to get to Phosphyllite?"

Boscha fell silent, though to be fair, something else had caught her attention at the moment: as soon as the duo walked out of the passage, Boscha spotted a brunette girl with an eyepatch looking around, gripping a harpoon gun as she did.

"Hey!"

The girl flinched and immediately aimed her harpoon at the source of the shout.

"Freeze! Or I'll shoot!"

Boscha rolled her eyes, then simply walked towards the kid until the harpoon was inches away from her chest. And yet, the girl didn't shoot.

"Alright, I'll be nice and assume you didn't hear me the first time-"

"Nobody has time for this crap, kid!" Boscha yelled, swatting the gun away as the girl hit the ground. "Now tell me, who are you?"

"I-I-I'm Lucy! I'm just a passenger trying to look for something, please don't hurt me!"

"Wait, those markings," Chris flinched. "They're the same markings as the Apex!"

"Oh really now?" Boscha raised an eyebrow. "You're a member of the Apex?"

Hearing this, Lucy stood up, dusted herself, and put her hands on her hips, proclaiming:

"That's right! I'm a member of the rulers of the Infinity Train, the Apex!"

_Talk about a mood changer._

"The rulers of the Infinity Train, hmm?" Boscha smirked. "I'm interested. Think you could guide me to them?"

"Boscha?" Chris asked, only to be shushed by the girl.

"Huh, really? Most people aren't really interested in seeing the Apex," Lucy raised an eyebrow and tilted her head. "Do you want something in particular?"

"Nothing, really. I'd just like to meet them."

"Well, I'd like a better reason than that!"

Ugh, I hope the rest of the Apex isn't this bratty. But then again, that means I can discipline them without being called out...

"I see, so that's how it is? Well, kid," Boscha chuckled. "You're going to find that I'm..."

Boscha snapped her fingers, summoning a fireball as she walked closer to Lucy.

" _Very persuasive_."

* * *

It had been a while since Amity collapsed and was taken to the infirmary. Luz, Skara, and Willow sat outside, trying to pass time while Amity recovered.

"Well, I didn't see that coming," Luz remarked nonchalantly.

"None of us did, really," Willow frowned. "Why did you ask Amity to go out with you, though? That's a little random, even for you."

Luz glanced at Skara, who nodded slightly, and Luz grimaced, hoping Willow would take the news well.

"Well, I found a letter on my locker that revealed that Amity developed a crush on me... somehow."

"Wait, Amity has a crush on you?" Willow tilted her head. "I thought she just didn't know how to have friends."

"I thought that too! But, when I think about it, it makes sense: the stuttering, the blushing, the fact she seems to melt when I get too close, those are all romance drama cliches back on Earth," Luz sighed and rested her cheek on her palm. "I just wish I had realized this before things got heavy."

"No offense, Luz, but that never would've happened," Skara stated. "I mean, if it took you getting a letter from Boscha and being explicitly told that Amity was in love with you, there's no chance you would've found out on your own."

"Wait, _Boscha_ wrote the letter that told you about Amity's feelings?!" Willow exclaimed in disbelief. "And you _believed_ her?!"

"Well, yeah," Luz shrugged. "I mean, she's got a third eye: surely that means she can see things that most people miss, right?"

Willow rubbed her forehead. "Luz-"

"Luz?"

The trio turned around, and to their relief, Amity was as good as new, though with a bandage wrapped around her forehead.

"You're back!" Luz chirped, jumping up and getting right on Amity's face. "Are you okay?!"

"Uh... yeah, but the nurse says I should try to rest a bit, so I must go home as soon as I can," Amity blushed. "And about your request..."

Luz snapped her fingers. "Oh, right, the going out with me thing! Are you up for it?"

Amity's blush intensified, but rather than panic like before, she slowly made eye contact with Luz and stammered:

"I-I guess I am... I-If you're up for it..."

"Sure!"

"Well, looks like something nice is blooming here, my job here is done," Skara said as she stood up. "I'm going home. My parents must be wondering where I am-"

Skara took a few steps before being stopped by Amity.

"Isn't there something you want to tell me before you go?"

Skara hummed for a moment as she looked at the ceiling, only to be snapped back to reality by Amity's response:

"Apologize!"

"H-Huh?! What for?!"

"Boscha might be the one who had the brilliant idea for the Mandragora, but she's not here to accept responsibility, is she?" Amity narrowed her eyes. "You're her partner in-crime, so you gotta pick up the slack!"

"Amity!" Willow exclaimed, visibly upset.

"Oh, pipe down, Willow!" Amity glared at Skara. "She's Boscha's partner, surely she had to know about the Mandragora!"

"I-I didn't!" Skara snapped back. "I was caught off-guard just as much as you were!"

"Or maybe you just acted like it in order to throw me off," Amity put her hands on her hips. "Your little bodyguard isn't here anymore, Skara: drop the pretense and be honest for once."

"Okay, I think this is getting a little too intense for us," Luz remarked, smiling nervously as she got between the pair. "How about we throw this topic under the bridge and go home?"

"Oh, I'm willing to do that," Amity narrowed her eyes. "So long as Skara apologizes for what happened!"

"B-But..."

Skara fell silent. What would Boscha do in this situation? Well, besides grabbing Amity's face and incinerating it with the fires of the underworld.

She took a moment to think things out, and when she did, she realized something: Boscha saw the Strong and the Weak, and hated those who refused to grow stronger.

If she apologized, would she be doing just that? Saying sorry when she was just as stunned about it would only, at best, feed Amity's ego, which was supposed to be on a diet of humility, and supposedly take the weight off Boscha's shoulder, but would she really like that?

No. She'd hate that.

"I got nothing to tell you, Amity," Skara stated sternly and bluntly. "I was aware Boscha would do something, but I never _thought_ she'd go as far as she did, and I'm not gonna shoulder her blame just to make you happy! Now if you excuse me, I need to go home now."

Skara walked past a stunned Amity, who shivered as the bard walked away. Her shock was quickly replaced with anger, however, and she ran to Skara and reached for her arm.

"H-Hey! Where are you going!? We're not done here!"

Amity reached an arm, and pulled...

*CRUNCH!*

* * *

Ear-piercing screeches were shouted from the box that a pair of young adults with masks held, holding several green-ish shards inside, some having been assembled to resemble a mouth.

And once it stopped, it spoke. "Kill me... kill me... kill-"

The guy slammed his fist on the mouth shattering it instantly while the masked woman looked at him.

"What?! They literally _asked_ to be killed! And besides, we're ignoring the important fact: this Denizen is somehow still alive!"

"Yeah, Simon, I'm stunned about that too," Grace, the woman, said as she looked at the shivering shards. "But how are they still alive? Most Denizens would be long gone if they were split in half, how's this one still conscious despite being separated into hundreds of pieces?"

"That doesn't matter right now," Simon shook his head. "It's clear what we have to do: we're aborting the mission, and wheeling this Denizen."

"What?! But we came here for the magical stones!" Grace replied. "If we manage to fix the shards, we could power up the Apex!"

"Yes, at the expense of a Denizen that's stuck in unimaginable pain and only wants to die," Simon threw his arms up. "For crying out loud, Grace, _I'm_ the one who hates Denizens with a passion, and even I find this Denizen's circumstances horrible! Let's just call it quits and put them out of their misery-"

"AAAAAAAH!"

The adults, as well as the children surrounding them, turned to the door to see Lucy running towards them, crying while covering her left eye with her hands.

"We gotta run! We gotta leave!" she cried once she reached the adults. "Throw everything out and run as far as away as we can!"

"Lucy, what are you screaming about?" Grace asked. "And what happened to your eye- _by the Conductor_!"

Grace pulled Lucy's hand down, and where there once was an eye was nothing more than burn and scar tissue surrounding an empty eye socket. Lucy did keep her eyepatch, though, so at least the socket could be covered.

The scarred tissue, not so much.

"Who did this to you!?"

"I believe that'd be me."

The Apex turned around, and saw Boscha enter the room, a worried Chris floating next to her.

"And I assume you're _the Apex_."

* * *

_If anybody's curious, the "magical stunting" was dealt with between Boscha finding Lapis and the group reaching the library. I just didn't find a good place to put it without dragging the story._


	3. Innocence Lost / The Mana Academy Car II

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Boscha fights the Apex with extreme prejudice, Skara and Luz talk for a bit.

_And here we are, chapter 3 of Boiling Point. If this was an Anime, this would be the point where the "three episode rule" would take effect: basically, you see the first three episode of an Anime, and then decide whether you'll drop it, or keep reading._

_And oh boy, with what Boscha's planning to do, isn't that a fitting statement._

_Also, yeah, I've heard about the Infinity Train season 4 being the last and I've seen the trailer. And I got a few things to say._

_See, I've always found myself in this weird spot when it comes to popular shows: initially, I don't pay attention to them, but when I do, it's either when they're about to end, or after they've ended. And when that happens, there's usually not much fanfic I can write about them that'd get decent attention._

_I've seen this happen with popular shows (Phineas and Ferb, Gravity Falls), and shows that aren't well known, for better or for worse (Fish Hooks, The 7D)._

_Coupled with many other shows coming to an end recently: Rapunzel's Tangled Adventures, Big Hero 6: The Series, and even Ducktales is coming to a close, it's very easy to get upset and sad about it and what not._

_But then, I remember a powerful saying. A truly immortal saying. A saying that will stay with us forever, and will never, ever, overstay its welcome._

_"Don't be sad because it's over. Be happy because it happened."_

_So, let's be happy that Infinity Train became a show._

_Let's be happy that it got more than one season._

_Let's be happy that we got to meet and grow with so many characters, even if some were less focused than others._

_But most importantly, let's be happy that we were there until the very end. Because we were there from the very beginning, when the show was just a unique, if very quirky pilot that was unlike anything that we had seen before, or after._

_And truthfully, even if the show ends, the stories we can tell about it won't. Sure, individual stories will end, but the plots and ideas? They're practically endless._

_From a blue-haired girl with mommy issues, to a red-haired girl from a world of fantastic creatures that didn't need those creatures to blossom, to even a three-eyed pyromaniac of a witch, the stories we can tell taking place on the Train are... well, infinite._

_But I've blabbered long enough. It's time for the main event!_

_P.S.: Apparently, Phosphyllite's name is actually Phos **pho** phyllite. If anybody can tell me if the former's a proper name for the gem or not, I'd appreciate it._

* * *

"So, _you're_ the Apex?" Boscha smirked. "A bunch of little brats and two adults? Is that seriously it?"

Boscha laughed out loud as the children shivered, Simon glaring at the three-eyed witch while Grace hugged Lucy.

"Lucy, is that Null the one who burned your eye?"

"Null is what the Apex calls the Denizens of the Infinity Train," Chris explained. "They call them as such to emphasize their non-human nature and make themselves seem superior."

"Wow, so not only are they pirates, but they're _racist_ pirates?" Boscha snickered, shaking her head before facing the Apex. "Sorry to break it to you, kids, but I'm no Null."

Boscha revealed her palm, which showed a glowing "16" that glitched until it transformed into a whopping "760."

"I'm a Passenger. _Just like you_."

The Apex gasped, Grace and Simon taking off their masks to take another look at the number.

"That's... a Passenger number!" Simon exclaimed. "And it's high enough to be part of the Apex, to boot!"

"Hahahaha, oh, you have _no_ idea how insulting that sounds!" Boscha folded her arms. "I wouldn't join your petty little club even if my life depended on it! You're nothing but a joke!"

Grace narrowed her eyes. "What did you say?"

Boscha turned to the crystal ball. "Chris, go check on the students. See if they're okay."

"But what about you?"

Boscha looked back at the Apex. "I'm gonna fight them."

"By yourself?!" Chris exclaimed in disbelief. "Are you crazy?! There are dozens of them, and you're alone! That's too unfair!"

"You're right, it's unfair... for _them_."

"Boscha-"

"Would you shut up and do as I told you already?"

The crystal ball looked conflicted for a moment, but at this point he knew better than to try anger the three-eyed time bomb. So, he nodded, and flew off to elsewhere

"You heard me right! Your Apex is nothing more than a bad joke!" Boscha clenched her fist and raised it with a cocky smile. "An Apex protects the Strong and Weak alike, and guides them to better themselves! And yet, what do you do? You play the pirate game, ransacking cars for resources, a short term solution to the long term problem that is your very existence!"

"That's it, you've gone too far!" Simon yelled. "First you hurt one of our members, and now you call us a joke!? Just who do you think you are!?"

Boscha snapped her fingers, summoning a fireball. "I'm glad you asked."

Boscha shot the fireball into the air, and with a clench of her fist, it exploded, surrounding everybody on a ring of fire as the three-eyed witch introduced herself:

"I'm Boscha Urodela! Heir of the Boiling Isles Underworld, and wielder of the flames of the Salamander! A living Apex of the highest quality, who stands above all!"

Boscha opened her palms, summoning a pair of fireballs as she added, with a sadistic smirk:

"Those who make a mockery of the title of "Apex" deserve to bathe in the _fires of the underworld!"_

* * *

* * *

Skara had a feeling she now knew how it felt to be Boscha 24/7. She was already in a bad mood from Amity having the bright idea to assume that since she was Boscha's friend, that she should at least apologize on her behalf, but what did the nurse say as she helped her set her arm straight?

_"You know, sweetie, it's not a good idea to pick a fight with a member of the Blight family. You're lucky she decided to only break your arm. Maybe next time you get into an argument, you could swallow your pride and apologize, don't you think?"_

She was the one who got the idea that she needed to apologize! And besides, she wouldn't even accept: Amity wanted _Boscha_ to apologize for the Mandragora incident, the only reason she told her to say sorry was because it was the next best thing!

Well, whatever, this horrible day was about to be over, and Skara would rather not stay in the building any longer. So, she power walked to the entrance, hoping she could leave Hexside before-

"Hey, Skara!"

_Titandammit!_

Skara turned around, and sure enough, Luz, Willow, and Amity approached her, the latter looking elsewhere with her arms folded.

"Hi, Skara," Luz said. "How's your arm? Is it better?"

"Yeah, no thanks to your friend," Skara growled. "What do you want this time?"

"Oh, well, Amity would like to apologize for what happened."

Skara's eye twitched. "Apologize?"

"That's your cue, Amity," Willow whispered to the Blight. "Like we practiced."

The girl walked forward, meeting Skara's sharp glare as she mentally prepared herself.

"Well, let's not stall. I'm... not very good at this stuff."

_Oh trust me, I can imagine._

"But Luz brought up a good point. It's not a good idea to hold onto these petty little things," Amity extended her hand forward. "So, how about we patch things up and shove this under the bridge?"

Skara glanced at Amity's offer, then at her neutral expression, and finally Luz and Willow, who were prompting the two to make up.

Seeing that, Skara looked back at Amity, narrowed her eyes...

And turned around and walked away.

The gasps of shock from the surrounding students echoed across the hallways, Amity's hand shivering as she slowly clenched it into a fist, and her expression narrowed...

"H-Hey, Amity, it's okay," Willow spoke, clasping her hands and taking a few steps forward. "There was a pretty big chance she would reject it, so-"

Suddenly, Amity ran.

"Amity!"

The girls ran to confront Skara, who was already halfway through the school's pavement when Amity yelled:

"WHYYYYYYYY!?"

This got Skara to stop, and face Amity with a stern expression.

"Why would you reject my apology like that?! I'm trying to be civil here! I'm trying to apologize for what I did, and you just walk away! Who do you think you are!?"

Narrowing her eyes, Skara fully turned around and walked back to Amity, who kept a strict pose as the bard got closer and closer. And once they were face to face, she spoke:

"So, you want to know why I don't accept your apology?"

"Yes!" Amity growled. "Why would you just turn around and walk away!?"

Skara took a deep breath, but even after doing that, there was a clear hint that the bard was having a hard time keeping it together.

"Let me bring you up to speed over what you've done to me today. First, when you and Willow butt into my Luz's conversation, you talk to me with a clear tone of condescendence. Then, when you recover from you-know-what, you have the _brilliant_ idea of holding me responsible for what Boscha did, and when I refuse to budge and make you happy, you break my damn arm!"

"That doesn't count!" Amity looked elsewhere. "That was clearly an accident-"

"I don't care if you wanted to do it or not!" Skara gritted her teeth. "The fact you'd go and pull such a Boscha move over something so petty's just-"

Skara paused and took a deep breath, while Amity flinched, presumably from the "Boscha move" comment.

"And besides, Luz said it herself: she and Willow had to help you get ready to try and ask for my forgiveness," Skara said, glancing at the duo briefly. "You really think I'm gonna accept an apology that you had to be coerced into doing!?"

"I wasn't forced to do anything! They just brought up a good point about it!"

"Then be honest with me, Amity: if Luz and Willow weren't here to get it on your head that you made a mistake... would you apologize to me eventually, or would you just walk away, acting like you did nothing wrong?"

Amity's eyes widened, but as soon as she opened her mouth to say something, she closed it and pouted.

"That's what I thought. Now, if you have any semblance of pride left, you'll keep your damn mouth shut, stop getting in my away, and we'll both go back to our homes, like nothing happened! Understood?"

Skara didn't even stay behind to hear Amity's answer, she just turned and began stomping away, leaving just as Amity stomped back to the duo and looked at Willow.

"This was a horrible idea! I can't believe you convinced me to do it!"

"Why are you yelling at me?!" Willow flinched. "Luz is the one who suggested you should apologize!"

As if on cue, Luz ran after Skara, leaving the duo alone. Luz followed Skara for a while as she headed into the forest, down a particular path that lead to a familiar spot.

"This is the same spot Amity and I found you," Luz remarked as Skara stopped. "After Boscha burnt your shoulder and ran away-"

Then, something happened that caught Luz completely off-guard.

Skara began crying.

"W-Whoa! Skara, what's wrong?!"

"I just don't know why everybody's being so mean to me today!" Skara cried, putting a hand on her shoulder as she ranted, "First Boscha burns my shoulder, then she runs away, Amity pins the blame on what happened with the Mandragora, accusing me of knowing what would happen, and then somehow I'm the bad guy when the best she gives me is a half-hearted apology! And why!? Because I'm Boscha's friend!?"

Luz clutched her chest, unsure of what to respond as Skara paused for a moment before she lowered her head and cried some more. After some moments of silent whimpering, Luz sat next to Skara and sighed:

"I'm sorry... I didn't want things to blow up the way they did."

"It's okay, Luz, I know you didn't mean it," Skara wiped some tears off her cheeks. "It's just that Amity's unbelievable at times!"

"Yeah, I got that very clear," Luz sighed. "But uh... well, this might be a bit personal, but you and Amity were never really... friends, were you?"

Skara took a deep breath. "My parents reached an agreement with Amity and Boscha's parents to try make an alliance, to strengthen political power or something, I never paid attention. Boscha and I, we tried to get along, and though it took a while, we can actually consider ourselves friends now. But Amity... she never tried."

"She didn't?"

"For as long as I can remember, Amity never felt... comfortable, around us." Skara raised her head. "Whenever we tried to get her to join us, she'd just turn us down. Boscha would get angry, but I'd convince her to let it go. And then when you arrived, her attention began focusing solely on you."

Luz giggled nervously and looked away. "Sorry about that."

"Don't be, you've given everybody a breath of fresh air we desperately needed," Skara rested her cheek on her palm. "Seriously, besides becoming the first human student at Hexside, you've beaten the Basilisk with the Detention track students, impersonated an abomination, made a house sprout legs and walk, you've done and gotten away with so many things in one semester than most witches would get away with in their entire lifetimes!"

"It's not all good, really," Luz folded her arms and looked at the sky. "I also swapped bodies with King and Eda, and that caused me a lot of trouble, especially when he unleashed that massive pile of tendrils-"

"Wait a minute, that wasn't you that moment?" Skara hummed. "No wonder you looked cuter than usual."

"King's cuteness does trascend his tiny baby body."

The girls shared a hearty laugh that lasted a couple seconds until Skara went silent, and frowned.

"What's wrong?"

"I wish Boscha was here. At least she'd be able to talk back to Amity and knock some sense into her. I can already see it: she'd probably something that'd get her attention, like-"

* * *

"I WILL BURN YOUR VERY SOUL!"

Those words were the only warning the children of the Apex got before Boscha lunged at them, punching the ground hard enough to cause a fiery explosion that sent them sliding back a few feet.

They quickly attacked soon after, or at least, a boy named Alex did: he aimed what looked like a rocket launcher-wand hybrid over his shoulder, and yelled:

"Eat this, sucker!"

The wand shot several energy blasts, but as soon as the first dispersed the smoke cloud, Boscha ran towards him, dodging each and every blast until she was close enough to throw a punch... just as the wand launcher got ready to shoot again.

The end result was an explosion that sent Boscha sliding back, her hand clearly burnt for a moment before it healed the damage.

As for Alex, well, not only was the right side of his face scorched, but his shoulder was viciously burned to the point that certain spots revealed bone and viscera, blood spilling from the holes as Boscha grabbed his injured arm and threw him over at the wall.

It was a good thing Grace and Simon had covered Lucy's eyes and ears, because this was starting to get hard to watch, despite having just started.

"How dare you-!" Simon growled as he stood up.

"Another step, and I turn all these children into corpses!" Boscha yelled with a sadistic smile.

Simon stopped right on his tracks. He wanted to do something, he really did, but it was really hard to come up with something while everything was happening, and the fire surrounding the building didn't help matters...

"How dare you do that to Alex!?"

Another Apex child, Todd, ran to Boscha screaming bloody murder, wearing a pair of gauntlets with star symbols on their side. However, he only managed to throw one punch that Boscha easily caught.

"How could I do it? Simple: because each and every single one of you deserve everything that's coming to you!"

Todd threw another punch, and Boscha easily dodged it.

"Including this!"

Coating her fist with fire, Boscha threw a punch at Todd's elbow, not only hitting it hard enough to break it, but snap his arm off, the resulting wound being quickly cauterized by the fire as the boy screamed in pain and his dismembered arm was set on fire.

Then, Boscha grabbed the burning arm, pinned Todd to the ground with her foot, and began bitch slapping him with it.

"Quit hitting yourself! _Quit hitting yourself! **Quit hitting yourself!"**_

Boscha cackled like an utter maniac as she began slapping harder and faster, until eventually, a titanic shout sent her flying, extinguishing the flames surrounding the place in the process.

The shouting came from another Apex kid, a girl named Lindsay, who used some futuristic thing on her neck to maximize her yelling.

Of course, even this only slowed down Boscha for a moment, since she slammed her hands deep into the ground, and shot enough fire to summon pillars of it all over the place, startling Lindsay long long to dash to her and grab her by the throat.

"Not so tough when you can't throw a temper tantrum, huh!?"

Lindsay hit Boscha's arm to free herself, but to no avail, as the three-eyed psycho pinned her to the ground, tightening her grip on her neck as she began heating it up.

"Now listen, you worthless little shit, I want you to beg for mercy! Beg for your life! Feel the same fear and despair that all the Denizens you killed felt in their last moments! And only then..."

Boscha leaned closer, a sadistic glare on her face.

"This might not be your own last moments of life!"

"HELP! SOMEBODY HELP ME!" Lindsay cried, shedding tears as she had more and more difficulty breathing. "MOMMY! DADDY! SIMON! GRACE! SOMEBODY SAVE ME!"

"That's more like it!"

Boscha lifted Lindsay and threw her straight to the pile of scarred children, and as she approached them, Simon paced back and forth, ruffling his hair.

"Come on, Grace, help me think of something here!" he exclaimed. "What can we do to stop this?! Sneak attack? Bargaining?! What do we do?!"

"I might have an idea."

Chris floated down to the group afterwards, getting a disapproving glare from Simon as he spoke:

"I know you don't like Denizens, but you need to listen to me! You gotta hand over the box! It's the only way to stop her rampage!"

Simon's eyes widened. "The box with the shards?"

"That same one. As a crystal ball, I can see into the past and future, and of all the futures I've seen, the only one where Boscha stops her carnage is when she's given the box. And you really should give it to her before there are no children left to save!"

Simon gritted his teeth. He really didn't want to trust a Denizen, he simply wasn't ready to put his trust in one of them again, he'd probably never be ready.

But Boscha was completely unlike anything else the Apex had faced before, and as soon as she set the damn place on fire, it became clear that they either gave her what she wanted, or she'd mutilate until they couldn't really stop her from taking it by force.

Desperate situations required desperate measures.

"Grace, hand her the-" And then, he saw a certain absence. "Grace, where's Lucy?!"

Grace looked down to see the girl nowhere to be seen, and it didn't take long before they found her next to a statue. She ripped off a heart within it, and it began ticking as she ran straight towards Boscha, screaming as loud as she could to get her attention as she threw the heart.

Boscha stopped and turned around just in time for the heart to hit her and explode, allowing Lucy to run to her fellow Apex children.

"Guys, are you okay?!"

"Do we look okay to you!?" Alex groaned.

"I know, but don't worry, Simon and Grace will heal us up... s-somehow!" Lucy grabbed Alex's good hand. "A-And I took out that psycho too! She won't hurt us again!"

"You did?!" Todd asked in disbelief. "I-Is she gone?"

"Did she die?!" Lindsay asked, slight spite in her tone.

"Sadly yes..."

A chill going down their spines, the Apex children turned around, and witnessed the smoke cloud dispersing to reveal Boscha standing in place, barely bruised as she extended her arms and proclaimed:

"But I lived!"

While her fellow children trembled in fear, Lucy stood her ground, clenching her fists as tears formed on the corner of her eyes.

"I'll give credit where credit's due, kid, you got guts," Boscha said as she dusted herself. "Too bad you're giving me ample reason to rip them off."

"Say whatever you want," Lucy spread her arms. "I'm not going to let you hurt my friends anymore!"

Boscha smiled bemused as she raised and coated her fist with fire.

"Alright then, guess I just gotta kill you, and then finish the job with your friends!"

Boscha ran towards the kids, Lucy's brave front slowly falling apart as she got closer and closer, until eventually, she threw her fire fist...

But instead of hitting Lucy, she hit Chris, who took the hit with a determined expression. And not only was he completely unfazed at the attack, but Boscha actually got hurt.

"Gah, my hand! What the hell are you made out of, and how can I destroy it!?"

"The Apex leaders are willing to bargain!"

Boscha's eyes widened, especially when Simon and Grace appeared behind her with the box in hand.

"Here's the box with the shards," Grace said as she handed Boscha the box. "It's all yours, just please, stop torturing the kids!"

Boscha opened the box, and upon seeing the shivering shards, she flinched, only to hide her discomfort with a haughty smile.

"Hmph, took you long enough. Fine, take the kids and get outta here."

Simon and Grace walked past Boscha towards the grateful children, and everything seemed to be fine...

"But one more thing before you go."

Chris winced at Boscha's words, trying to gesture the duo to not listen to her, to no avail.

"What is it?"

"Those masks you got are pretty cool," Boscha faced the duo, one of her arms behind her back. "Do they serve any purpose? Can they do anything?"

Grace was the one to answer, "Well, not really, we just have them to look cool."

Boscha smirked. "Well, how about I give them a real purpose?"

Boscha swung her glowing hand, sending a yellow shockwave straight at Simon and Grace's faces, sending them flying into the children.

Gasping at the end result, Lucy quickly covered the leaders with their masks, and once that was done, she bared her fangs against Boscha, flashing the most furious glare she could muster.

"Why did you do that!? They already gave you wanted!"

"Yes, they gave me the box, which is something I wanted," Boscha narrowed her eyes. "But I also want this "Apex" to pay for everything it has done. And the things I did to you aren't enough."

"Aren't enough?! You blew up Alex's shoulder! Split Todd's arm in half! Strangled Lindsay, and now you burn Simon and Grace's faces! And you think that's not enough!?"

"Precisely." Boscha snapped her fingers, summoning a small fireball on her thumb as she approached the group. "There's still much, much left for you to feel... to suffer..."

Suddenly, a pink arrow nearly hit Boscha, stopping her in her place as magical girls appeared out of nowhere: a pink-haired one with a raven-haired one that aimed at Boscha with a bow and guns, another group lead by a girl with black hair and pupils shaped like a broken heart, a nigh-naked girl with a red highlight on her hair and a pair of giant, crimson scissors, among others, all aiming their weapons at Boscha.

"Chris," the witch faced the crystal ball. "What's the meaning of this?"

"It's one thing to stop the Apex. It's another thing to torture and mutilate them," the crystal ball stated. "You already did enough, and got the box you wanted. Now don't test my patience and leave once the portal appears."

Boscha glared at the crystal ball, but rather than risk anything, she turned off her fire and stood down.

Normally, she wouldn't bother listening to the warnings of a sentient crystal ball and would just finish the job. But even she knew that doing that right now would be suicide.

She was surrounded by girls with magical power that was probably stronger than hers, and even if she believed in there being Strong and Weak people, she also knew about having strength in numbers.

Being Strong didn't really mean anything if you were completely surrounded, even if you were surrounded by the Weak.

So, she began to walk away, waiting for the portal to open...

And then she faced the Apex one more time.

"The only reason I'm not killing you right now, besides the obvious, is because you're not worth it. I already showed you what I can do with only a little power of the Salamander by my side, and I practically left you in shambles! If I wanted, I could've burned you to a crisp, and make sure your existence as people, as the False Apex, was nothing more than a memory..."

Boscha smirked with clear sadism. "But where's the fun in that?"

The Apex shivered, especially as Boscha continued:

"The truth is, False Apex, that your existence is going to be more than miserable for you going forward. I heard what you did: ransack cars and kill any Denizens that got in your way. But after being left in such a pathetic state, who's going to forget everything you did and give you a helping hand? The truth is, nobody will. Nobody will forget what you did before this point. Nobody will forget how you once terrorized the Infinity Train because you believed you owned it. You'll be forever remembered as the Passengers who refused to learn how things actually worked."

Boscha cackled, sending shivers down everyone's spine.

"And the best part of it is, you wouldn't even be alive right now if it wasn't for a Denizen! If Chris hadn't seen past your horrible crimes, do you know what I would've done? I would've killed you on the spot, but I wouldn't have stopped there! I'd have ripped your heads straight off your shoulders, put them at the very top of a set of pikes, and gathered just some of the many, many Denizens you've hurt in the wake of your terror, and began a parade of your lifeless remains across the Train! A parade that would be met with the utmost cheer and joy, all while the Denizens would cry out in joy, to be heard all across the Train..."

Boscha raised her arms and exclaimed at the top of her lungs:

"THE APEX! IS! DEAD!"

Those words echoed across the building as the Apex, the students, and Chris looked at Boscha like she was some kind of madwoman, a notion not helped by the demented laughter she had soon after...

And then, she calmed down in the blink of an eye.

"But don't think that just because I'm leaving you alone right now, that you're safe from my wrath."

Simon and Grace flinched.

"This is your chance, your one and only chance, to become better. To become worthy of the title of Apex. Protect the Strong and Weak... the Passengers and the Denizens... and help them grow to become stronger... only when you do that, will you be able to call yourselves an "Apex" without giving me the desire to murder you."

Boscha narrowed her eyes with a cocky grin.

"And if we meet again, and you've failed to change enough... well, then you'll leave me no choice but to get rid of you. With extreme prejudice."

A portal opened behind Boscha, which she approached as she finished:

"Now, if you excuse me, I have better things to do than waste my time talking to a bunch of Frauds like yourselves. So, until we meet again, False Apex. Pray that it doesn't come sooner rather than later."

Boscha walked through the portal, and it closed just as the Apex collapsed, the leaders barely staying conscious long enough to see the students running up to them, saying:

"Quick! Take them to the infirmary!"

* * *

Luz couldn't help but feel a little about how things had gone today. The start was just fine, and getting to learn of Amity's feelings and becoming a couple with her were also positives...

But on the flip side, there was everything about the Skara situation. From Amity accidentally breaking her arm, to being effectively forced to take the blame for Boscha, Luz couldn't help but feel sorry for the girl. And when she saw her at the woods crying...

"I'm home."

Well, hopefully, Eda and King could cheer her up.

"Hey there, Luz!" Eda, the Owl Lady remarked, waving her hand while at the kitchen. "I'm just about done cooking dinner, go sit with King in the meantime!"

"Got it!"

Luz sat down at the couch, and King, who was reading a book, put it down and noticed her.

"Hi, Luz, when did you get here?"

"Just now. When did you took up reading?"

"Reading? Pfft! I'm only reading this thing because it has funny pictures," King lifted the book and flipped the page, laughing out loud a few seconds later. "Ahahahaha! That kid got decapitated! What a classic!"

Luz chuckled slightly, forcing a small smile that eventually morphed into a frown as the laughter ended.

"Hey, Luz, is something wrong?" King asked. "You spent a lot more time at Hexside than usual."

"I..."

_Can I tell them about what happened with Boscha? I mean, I trust King and Eda, but can they really help me with this sort of thing? I mean, Skara alone was something I've never seen before, I'm still shaken about that. Besides, Eda and King have their own stuff to deal with. Well, Eda has stuff, King has a lack of impulse control._

"A thinking statue!"

Luz snapped back to reality, seeing King pointing at her while jumping up and down.

"A half-vehicle! A fanfic writer! A half-vehicle riding a fanfic writer!"

"What are you doing?"

"Isn't it obvious? We're playing charades!" King shrugged. "At least, I assume we're playing charades, since you keep making all those weird movements."

Luz took a deep breath, and forced a smile. "You know what, King? I think I could use a game of charades right now."

"Woohoo! My desires are fulfilled once more!" King clasped his hands. "Don't cry when I beat you, Luz!"

Luz chuckled. "Same to you."

_I'll leave that in the backburner for now. In the meantime, time to show King a charades master!_

* * *

Boscha walked around the car she found herself at: it was a long, laboratory-like place with several platforms, some having broken objects placed on them.

"Where am I?"

"This is what's known as the Reconstruction Car."

Boscha turned around, and glared at the familiar spherical being that was Chris.

"In this Car, any broken object, and even Denizens, can be easily repaired with a push of a button. The students come here whenever their magical weapons break-"

"What the hell are you doing here?" Boscha raised an eyebrow. "Don't you have a job back at the previous Car?"

"I've seen some of the horrors you're willing to unleash just to prove a point; and somebody like that needs someone to keep them in check," Chris explained, furrowing his brow. "And since we've already proven that I'm one of the few things that can withstand one of your attacks-"

"Hmph, that punch was just a fluke! Believe me, if you make me angry, I'll eventually find a way to crack you open like an egg!"

"And until then, I'll keep an eye on you, and make sure you don't start pulling the same stunts as the Apex!"

Boscha flinched at the statement, but she wasn't really mad at the crystal ball. If anything, talking back to her like this was something she approved, as it showed Chris had the guts the Apex completely lacked.

"Good answer," Boscha walked to one of the platforms. "Now tell me, how do I get this thing to work?"

"Put the shards on the platform then press the button."

Boscha obliged: she opened the box, shoved the shards down the platform, then pushed the only button on it. A few seconds passed and nothing seemed to happen...

And then, the shards shook, and began spinning as they floated up, morphing and combining until they resembled a humanoid figure.

Within the span of ten seconds, the shards had been reformed into Phosphyllite, whose first reaction upon hitting the ground was-

"AAAAAAAAAAH!"

... Not exactly nice.

"Where am I?! What happened?! Why am I alive?! How am I alive?!"

"Geez, dude, calm down," Boscha said, pocketing her hands. "Everything's alright now, okay? I took you out of that academy and got you all fixed up."

"But why?" Phosphyllite looked at their hands. "Why do I deserve to get repaired after I failed Lapis the way I did?" and then they remembered something. "Lapis! What happened to them?!"

"They died," Boscha stated with a grin. "Just like they deserved."

"I couldn't even keep Lapis safe?" Phos lowered their head. "I really AM a failure."

"You're not going to get anywhere with them if you keep acting like this, Boscha," Chris stated sternly. "Right now, they don't need to be told the harsh truth, they need to be comforted; you can do that, right?"

"Of course I can!"

"Then what are you waiting for?"

Boscha gritted her teeth. As much as she wanted to punch Chris in his crystal face, she already knew it wouldn't work. And besides, he was right: given how Phosphyllite was acting right now, it wouldn't be surprising if a few words made the difference in convincing them not to shatter themselves the first chance they got.

And so, Boscha stepped forward and grabbed Phosphyllite's head.

"Okay, look at me and listen: you're not a failure. You didn't fail Lapis in any way, shape, or form. If anything, Lapis failed you."

Phosphyllite blinked. "They... they did?"

"Instead of seeing you as an equal and helping you grow into a strong and capable... whatever you are-"

"Denizen," Chris blurted.

"A strong and capable Denizen, they just saw you as a pawn, and once they used you for their benefit, they threw you at the side as if you were garbage."

Boscha tightened her grip on Phosphyllite's face, making sure not to crack it.

"But just because people see you as a pawn doesn't mean that's all you are! It just means that they'd rather use you as a tool rather than see you for what you really are."

Boscha released Phosphyllite's face, and took a couple steps back.

"Right now, maybe you're Weak. And maybe you're useless. But that can change. And I will make sure that changes."

Phosphyllite frowned. "And... who are you, again?"

Boscha flashed a smile, and extended her hand. "Call me Boscha."

Phosphyllite glanced at the hand, then Boscha's smile, and shook it. "Phosphyllite."

"Okay, so now that I have a couple of coming with me, I think it's time to make some progress on this Infinity Train!" the three-eyed witch remarked, rubbing her hands together. "So, Chris, tell me: is there an Astral Car on this Train?"

"Well, it's called the Infinity Train for a reason, so there's a very good chance that such a Car exists," Chris frowned. "The problem's that we don't know how many Cars we'd need to travel through in order to reach it: we could spend days looking for it to no avail."

"Little progress is better than no progress," Boscha smiled. "I'll take it."

"If you don't mind me asking," Phosphyllite blurted. "Why do you wanna see the Astral Car of all places?"

Boscha folded her arms behind her back, and raised her head. "There's a type of Illusion magic back in my world, which allows the soul to create an illusion of it self that can move freely around, and transmit the thoughts of its user and translate them into words. This is called an astral projection, and if I'm gonna learn that technique anywhere, it's gotta be the Astral Car."

"But why do you need it?" Chris and Phosphyllite asked in unison.

Boscha took a deep breath, her smile turning into a frown.

"There's someone back in my world that's probably worried about me. I... want to let her know I'm fine... and honestly, I just wanna see if she's okay, too..."

* * *

Back at the Boiling Isles, Skara was fast asleep, with notable tear trails going down her cheeks. She snored peacefully for a moment... and tightly grabbed her pillow, whispering a familiar name:

"Bos... cha..."


	4. Magical Musical / The Cat's Car

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Luz and Skara take on the Bard track exam, the Apex try staying calm.

_Okay, so, this might be a dumb thing to point out, but after what happened last chapter, I don't think we should focus on Boscha for a bit._

_So, instead, we're gonna focus on the Boiling Isles, where Skara's exam takes place, and the Apex, just to see how badly Boscha's encounter with them has left them in shambles._

_I'll try to be a bit more comedic with this chapter because, truth be told, while last chapter was fun to write, it was also quite brutal. Like, much more brutal than what I'm normally used to._

_And before anybody asks, I'm hoping to have a Lumity endgame, of course, but also something for Skara too. Boscha's not really into romance, and she's kind of a psycho, so there's that._

_Also also, great news: this story has a Tv Tropes page! One made by Green_Phantom_Queen herself! I dunno if I can add a link to it, but it's there!_

_Also, a couple things I've wanted to clarify:_

_* Amity's leg injury at the Grudgby game didn't happen. But though this could be seen as her being around for the season one finale, I doubt she'd change much: Lilith made quick work of Gus and Willow, she can work Amity just as quick._

_* Boscha's eyes were glowing red during the entirety of her fight with the Apex, and in general, they glow red when she's angry._

_* Amity hasn't spoken with Skara since the rejected apology bit. If she could only barely start mending her friendship with Willow, there's no way she's getting through Skara._

_* Boscha's first number, 16, is the atomic number of Sulfur, while her second number, 760, is the number of total living Salamander species. Her family name, Urodela, is the name of the order that Salamanders belong to._

_Anyway, I've blabbered long enough. Onto the chapter!_

* * *

_"That was amazing!"_

_"I can't believe you did that!"_

_"How are you still alive?!"_

Truth be told, Luz was expecting some kind of attention after the stunt she pulled last week.

It was one thing to head to Emperor Belos' place and challenge him to a fight, all to save a transforming Eda.

It was another thing entirely to not only survive the fight, but chip a piece of his mask off.

The invincible Emperor Belos. Had his mask chipped. By a human.

Yeah, things got pretty crazy, and if those words were any indication, things were not going to calm down for Luz for a while.

"Luz!"

The human girl snapped back to reality to find herself at the hallways of Hexside, Amity standing next to her with a checklist.

"I've been trying to get your attention for half an hour!" she chided. "We still need to decide where are we gonna have our first date!"

Right, she and Amity were supposed to be dating. Though given everything that had just happened, they didn't really do much _dating_ at all.

"Sorry, Amity," Luz scratched her head. "I haven't been able to focus since the whole Belos thing. People keep pointing it out to me, and I'm honestly kinda worried he'll come out of nowhere and strike."

Amity lowered her eyelids and pocketed her checklist with a sympathetic smile.

"Got it, let's save the first date for when you're feeling better."

"Thank you."

"Now, have you studied for today's exams?"

"Yup! I spent all night memorizing the perfect potion recipes for the Potions exam!" Luz chirped.

Amity raised an eyebrow. "Did you study for the _other_ exams?"

Luz blinked twice. "What other exams?"

Amity raised an eyebrow. "Luz, are you or are you not part of every single track at Hexside?"

"Yup!"

"That means you gotta do _every_ exam we got today."

"Whaaat?!" Luz ruffled her hair. "Nobody told me about that!"

"Well what else did you expect?" Amity folded her arms. "Did you really think you could join every track and _not_ have to deal with multiple exams?"

Luz groaned and pouted pitifully, striking the vulnerable heart of her girlfriend.

"Luckily for you, there's a certain girl who's got smarts, and is totally willing to help you study."

Luz perked up again. "Hey, you're right! I think I know who you're talking about!"

Amity flashed an amused smile. "Really?"

"Yeah! One of the smartest girls in Hexside!"

"Uh huh..."

"One with incredible potential!"

Amity blushed and put a hand on her cheek. "Go on..."

"And one of the few people in this crazy world known as Boiling Isles that I trust with my very being!"

Amity's blush intensified as she put both hands on her cheeks and giggled. "Keep going!"

"You think Willow's busy right now?"

"I'm talking about _me_!" Amity yelled, her giddyness replaced with anger. "And we're gonna start studying _right here, right now_ : you only got so much time before classes start."

Luz groaned again, but Amity felt no sympathy this time. A certain student walking by probably would, though.

"Skara, save me! Amity's trying to force me to study against my will and-" Luz tilted her head. "What do you have behind your back?"

Skara flinched and turned around, keeping whatever she held as hidden as possible. "Oh, uh, nothing. It's just something I made for today's exam."

"I wanna see it!"

Luz tried to reach for Skara, but the bard jumped back.

"No can do, Luz," Skara waggled her index finger. "This is only for the exam."

"And you got other things to do," Amity chided, grabbing and pulling Luz by the ear. "Come on, we're wasting time here."

Amity dragged Luz away, and Skara waved goodbye, waiting until they were completely gone before she took out what she hid:

A thin wand-flute hybrid.

"You'll make your debut today."

* * *

Simon and Grace had better days.

Ever since the encounter with _you-know-who_ , the Apex slowly fell apart: when their small group returned from, let's be honest here, a straight up massacre, the Apex lost members in the blink of an eye.

Where there once stood dozens of members, now there were only four: the very same kids who had been put through _you-know-who's_ brutal assault, and survived.

Once their injuries had been healed at the Mana Academy Car, there was really only one place they could go where they would, hopefully, be safe from any Denizen, or Passenger, who would want to try finish the job.

But it wasn't a place Simon was happy to be at.

Especially when instead of a normal alarm clock, he was waken up by the sounds of mechanical purrs and meowing.

"Alright, everybody wake up!" Grace exclaimed, standing up and clapping her hands as the children soon followed. "We got a long day ahead of us, so let's get started!"

Lucy was pretty much the only one who woke up with a chipper smile: Lindsay put her pillow over her head, Alex groaned as he rubbed his eyes, and Todd just kept snoring without a care in the world.

"Eh, they'll get up soon enough," Grace turned to Simon and shook him. "Simon, get up!"

"I don't want to..."

Grace glanced at Lucy, and nodded with a cocky smile. The girl promptly patted her elbow, then ran to Simon and elbowed his back, not only causing the man to wake up, but to drop out of his bed.

"Alright, I'm up! I'm up!" he groaned as he stood up. "You guys go ahead and brush your teeth, I'll... try to get my back fixed..."

The children obliged and left, and as they did, Simon couldn't help but notice their changes.

Lucy was the most normal, simply having bandages wrapped around the left side of her face.

Lindsay had her whole neck bandaged, as the metal being heated up caused it to fuse with her skin.

Alex's shoulder was wrapped with bandages, alongside the right side of his face.

And though Todd's forearm was completely incinerated by Boscha, at least what remained of his arm was bandaged up, alongside his face.

Needless to say, this only served as a cruel reminder of that horrible day.

* * *

And when time came for breakfast, Simon was notably upset.

"What's wrong, Simon? Not feeling hungry?"

The man turned around, and saw the same Denizen that had accompanied him nearly a decade ago. The same Denizen that abandoned him to the mercy of a Ghom, causing him to loath and detest all Denizens.

And, ironically, the only Denizen who'd bother to give a helping hand to the ruins that were the Apex.

Samantha. Or, as she preferred, The Cat.

"I guess you could say that," Simon sighed as he ate some eggs. "One of the kids decided to wake me up by snapping my back in half due to _someone's_ prodding."

Grace looked elsewhere, and whistled as she tried to eat her food.

"Well, don't think about that for now," Samantha sighed, briefly glaring at Grace before giving Simon a reassuring smile. "The Cat Carnival Car will open soon, and then when it's over, I'll help you look for a new place to stay."

"You mean you'll abandon us the first place we find, right, Null?"

The Cat turned to face Lindsay, who was eating her pancakes with a little smile.

"Lindsay, please, we're eating," Grace sighed. "If you got something to say-"

"Let her be, Grace," The Cat narrowed her eyes. "I'm actually curious as to _what_ she meant."

"Oh, puh-lease, don't act like you don't know: Simon told us about what you did to him," Lindsay chided. "How you ran away like a coward and never came back for him!"

Then, she flashed a cat-like smile. "Or should I say, that you ran away like a _scaredy cat_?"

The Cat narrowed her eyes. "How dare you say that with the smile of my people."

Lindsey slammed her fist down the table while shouting "scaredy cat!" repeatedly, continuing until the rest of the kids joined her chanting.

" _Scaredy cat! Scaredy cat! Scaredy cat!_ "

"Okay, I think that's enough," Simon said, getting between both groups. "Say, is one of you missing?"

"Lucy stayed behind to train," Todd answered.

"Snitch!" Lindsay snapped at the boy.

"Okay then, guess I'll excuse myself to go look for her," Grace stood up. "Unless you'd like to go, Simon?"

"And risk having her finish breaking my back? Yeah, no thanks."

"Alright then, if you say so."

* * *

Grace walked back upstairs, and went to the very last door on the hallway. When she opened it, Lucy was inside, hitting a punching bag while wearing a pair of Blue boxing gloves.

"Hey there, kiddo!" Grace chirped. "We were wondering when you were going to join us for breakfast."

"I'll be there in a minute, just let me finish here!"

Grace sighed and walked to Lucy's side just as she threw a big left hook.

"So, training for when we see... her, again?"

"Yup! I even drew a picture of the jerk for extra motivation!"

Grace looked at the bag, and held back a chuckle at the crude drawing of Boscha pasted in the middle.

"You've gotten better at drawing, I see."

"Yup, I've been practicing my drawing skills ever since...!"

Lucy's smile slowly faded, replaced by a lowered look of concern.

"Lucy, I have to insist, you need to go and eat your breakfast-"

"And I also need to be prepared for when we meet the **maniac** again, so that I don't stand around like a moron as she _tortures_ my _friends_!"

Grace jumped back at the sudden shout, calming down as Lucy took a deep breath and removed her boxing gloves.

"Sorry..."

"... Lucy, we haven't seen her for a whole week now. Not only that, but we got a job and a roof over our heads. You should... try to take it easy or something-"

"How!? How am I supposed to take it easy!? How are _any_ of us supposed to take it easy!?" Lucy snapped, glaring at Grace as she ranted, "There's a flaming psychopath roaming the Train, who said she'd do unspeakable things to us if we ever met again! And we can't even trust her word that she'll leave us alone if we get better after what she did to you and Simon!"

Grace was immensely grateful that The Cat just so happened to have enough money for plastic surgery. What became of Simon and Grace's faces after Boscha's swipe was... something she didn't like to think about.

"Lucy, I know you're scared, but grinding yourself to dust trying to learn how to fight isn't going to help," Grace raised her palm, revealing her number now only reached her wrist. "If we get these numbers down to zero, then we can leave the Train, and stay on an entirely different world from that maniac."

"Yes, I know, but until then, every time we go to a new car, there's a chance we'll run into her!" Lucy gasped, shedding tears while clutching her chest. "A-a-and if we do run into her, we'll meet a dead end! _With emphasis on **dead**!_"

Then, Grace hugged Lucy, the girl gasping and looking shocked for a moment before she returned the hug.

"I... I don't wanna die..."

"I know. And I promise you, Lucy, that psycho will have to go through me and Simon if she wants to lay a single finger on you."

"But I don't want you to die either..."

Grace tightened the hug. "We'll find a way to make this work. Let's just, go eat breakfast now, and worry about that later, okay?"

"...Okay..."

* * *

Back at Hexside, the Bard track students sat at the school's backyard, preparing themselves for their upcoming exam.

Skara was no exception, cleaning her wand-flute hybrid while sporting a confident smile, finishing just as a certain voice spoke:

"Hi Skara..."

"Hi Luz, how's it-OH MY TITAN!"

Luz, besides sporting a red-tinted version of her usual multicolor outfit, also had notable eye bags and wrinkles.

"Nice... to... see... you... t-"

Luz tripped and nearly hit the ground, only to land on Skara's lap instead.

"Luz, are you okay?!"

"Skara, your thighs are heavenly." Luz moaned, hugging Skara's legs. "Can I sleep on them for a while?"

"First of all, only Boscha can do that," Skara grabbed and put Luz on the seat next to her. "Second of all, what happened to you?!"

"Amity grinded me to the ground, teaching me everything I needed to know for today's exams," Luz explained, tilting from side to side. "She'd be a pretty good teacher, I'll give her that."

"Okay, there's no way you're gonna last in this state," Skara separate her flute from her wand. "Give me a second, I'll sing you a melody that should heal you up."

Skara took a deep breath, then played a slow, soothing melody on her flute. As the melody played, the bags under Luz's eyes disappeared entirely, and her body straightened up, Luz herself feeling fully refreshed once the melody ended.

"There, that should do it."

"Whoa-hoho! I feel great!" Luz faced Skara. "What did you do?!"

"I just played a little melody to give you your strength back," Skara explained calmly as she put the flute and wand back together. "Unfortunately, it'll only last for a few hours, so you better make good use of it."

"Wait, it's only temporary?" Luz frowned. "Why didn't you use the permanent variant?"

"I don't know the melody for that one."

"Ah, I see," Luz stretched a bit. "Well anyway, thanks a lot for this, Skara. Now I'll actually have a chance at passing this exam!"

"And the next few that come after it."

"Sure, if possible."

"Alright, bards, stand up!"

Luz and Skara hastily obliged, the former standing up immediately while the latter took her time. And as the bard teacher spoke, it took one sentence to catch Luz's interest:

"Now remember, if you fail to provide the Bat Queen with enough food, she will just have to eat you instead!"

"Wait, so, if we fail, we're gonna get _eaten alive_?!"

"Not really," Skara shrugged. "If the Bat Queen eats you, she'll teleport you to her stomach dimension, where, apparently, a smaller version of herself will teach you what you did wrong."

Luz grimaced. "Now I almost _wish_ she'd eat me alive."

"Hey, look at the bright side," Skara smiled brightly. "If we pass, we might get the chance to get our own palismans!"

"Really?! But I didn't get any palismans for the other tests!" Luz pouted. "Where are _my_ half-a-dozen palismans?!"

"Owlbert's good enough for you!"

Luz and Skara turned around, and saw Eda and Lilith hiding in the bushes, the former waving her hand high before the latter shoved her back into the bush.

"Huh, Eda and Lilith actually came to watch? This test must be very important, then, since I didn't see them before," Luz squinted her eyes. "But why are they hiding?"

"Go, Skara!"

Near Lilith and Eda's hiding bush, Warden Wrath and his lackies stood up, waving their fists while cheering for Skara as loudly as they could.

"Warden Wrath?!" Luz narrowed her eyes with visible disgust. "What's _he_ doing here!?"

"He's... my father..."

Luz slowly turned to face Skara, who was looking away with an uneasy smile. A couple seconds passed before the full brunt of the reveal reached Luz, and once it did, Luz couldn't help but scream.

"I have so many questions right now!"

"And I'm afraid we have so little time to answer them," the bard teacher said, catching Luz's attention. "Have you brought an instrument for today's exam, Luz?"

Luz simply smiled and took out her instrument: a violin.

"I didn't take you for a violinist, Luz."

"Neither did I: It's a last minute thing Amity came up with. Something about playing a ballad for her when it's all done."

Skara promptly uncovered her wand-flute hybrid, and Luz's attention was instantly caught, going "ooooh" at the sight.

"Pretty cool, right? I made it myself."

"It looks so dang cool!" Luz chirped, her eyes brimming with amazement. "Could I borrow it someday?"

Skara giggled for a moment. "Of course not!"

Just then, a large shadow loomed over the bard students, and faster than you could shout "Incoming!", the Bat Queen flew down, spreading her wings and roaring at the bard teacher:

"FEED ME, SEYMOUR!"

"Just one minute, Your Highness," the teacher, apparently named Seymour, answered before turning to the students. "Alright, children, this is where you come in! Play the melodies I taught you so the Bat Queen may have a feast!"

The students readied their instruments, Skara smiling with a hint of cheekyness that suggested she had a trick up her sleeve.

The students played their melodies in quick succession, bringing fairies, elves, and mandragoras individually, the Bat Queen eating each of the creatures with a wide smile.

"And now, Luz Noceda."

The human nodded and took a couple steps forward: she grabbed the thing people used to play the violin, and began playing the first melody she could remember...

Not that it would've mattered, since the only melody anybody could hear was a gargled mess of noise that could break ears.

 _Looks like Amity's gonna need to give Luz some more lessons_. Skara thought with a cocky smile.

Bizarrely, though, the Bat Queen seemed to enjoy it, since she began dancing to the tune up until the teacher put a stop to it.

"Alright, Luz, that'll be enough. For everybody's sake," Seymour sighed. "Now, while I'm sure you've driven away nearly every creature near here, you also did entertain the Bat Queen, so I guess I can give you a passing. You only just barely passed, though."

"Woohoo, mediocrity!" Luz chirped.

"And now, we come to our last student: Skara Brae."

All eyes fell on Skara, who stood up and took over Luz's spot, the human flashing a pair of thumbs up at her as she left. Skara looked down at her wand-flute hybrid, and took a deep breath before she began playing the fairy melody.

The slow, alluring melody brought over a group of fairies towards the students, most praying these weren't of the skin-eating variety.

However, somewhere along the fairies' trek, Skara added a pair of melodies to the fairy one, intertwining them as everybody took notice. Especially Luz.

_Wait, why's Skara changing the melody all of a sudden?_

As the melody kept playing, not only did the fairies keep flying towards the group, but some elves and mandragoras came as well.

 _Oh, now I get it! She's mixing the melodies together so she'll attract all three types instead of just one!_ Luz pouted. _Why didn't I think of that?!_

The creatures kept walking in unison, oblivious to the giant humanoid head licking her lips. And next thing they knew, they were swallowed by the beast, gulping them down as Skara's combined melody came to a slow, gentle end.

Everybody stood stunned at what had happened, and when Skara opened her eyes and looked around, not only was she greeted by their shocked expressions, but her teacher looked positively furious.

"Care to explain yourself, Skara?! What were you thinking, mixing the melodies without my permission!? It was scandalous! It was outrageous! It was-!"

"Delicious!"

Everybody turned around to see the Bat Queen licking her lips, sporting a satisfied smile as she eyed Skara, and promptly walked to her.

Before Skara could say anything, the giant head opened her mouth and rolled out her tongue, a small, bird-shaped wooden piece revealed at the very end of the tongue.

Skara grabbed the item, and looked at it with a skeptical eyebrow.

"Uh, what's this?"

The Queen rolled her tongue back, then dropped the bombshell:

"Palisman. For you."

Everybody's jaws dropped as the Bat Queen promptly flapped her wings and flew off, leaving everybody to process what had just happened.

Even Skara could only stare at her palisman in shock as she and Luz walked back inside the building.

"That was incredible, Skara!" the human said with a wide smile. "I mean it, you gotta tell me how you did it! And in exchange, I can present you to Eda! I bet she'd want to meet you after that display!"

Skara remained silent, staring stupified at the totem.

"Skara?"

"Huh-wha-heh?! Oh, Luz," Skara sighed. "Sorry, I'm just... I just can't believe it: I only wanted to pass the test-"

"And you passed! With flying colors!" Luz raised her hand. "High-five!"

Skara stared at Luz's hand for a while, but one look at Luz's puppy dog-eyed "don't leave me hanging" expression made her smile and clap her hand.

"Did I do right?"

"You did it perfectly!" Luz put a hand on Skara's shoulder. "Congratulations!"

Skara yelped and hopped back, grabbing her shoulder as she took a deep breath and calmed down.

"Oh, right, sorry. I thought the pain had left a while ago."

"It's okay," Skara eyed her shoulder. "It doesn't hurt as much as it used to, but I can still feel it."

Luz stated sympathetically at Skara, even as the bard forced a smile and added:

"I have to thank you, Luz. After all, I got the idea of mixing the melodies together from your... unorthodox thinking," Skara put a hand on her chest. "Still, I can't deny I took a big risk: I almost didn't get away with it!"

"But you did. And not only that," Luz looked closer at the wooden bird. "But you also got a palisman!"

"Yeah, well, mostly," Skara looked back at the avian totem. "I still need to bring it to life somehow."

"I'm sure you'll find a way!" Luz patted Skara's back. "If you could find a way to mix melodies to give the Bat Queen a feast, then I'm sure you'll find a way to bring the palisman to life!"

Skara flashed a smile, and looked at her brand new palisman before telling Luz:

"Thank you."

With that done, both girls walked back inside Hexside, taking only a few steps before Luz blurted:

"Oh right, I wanted to ask you: have you seen Boscha today?"

"I was gonna ask you the same thing," Skara raised an eyebrow. "You didn't see her during the Potions exam?"

Luz shook her head.

"Weird, her week of suspension's over, so I figured she'd come today," Skara raised her head. "Where could she be?"

* * *

On top of a crystalline structure in some kind of astral realm, a cloaked figure stood and watched the surrounding area, in particular a floating plataform where a guy with a crown sat in a royal manner.

Close behind the figure appeared two familiar faces: Chris and Phosphyllite, the latter now sporting golden arms.

"Well, here we are," Chris remarked. "The Astral Car."

"It's a lot more... tangible than I imagined," Phos remarked. "Are you sure we're in the right-?"

Suddenly, the figure threw their cloak away, covering Phosphyllite as they revealed themselves to be none other than Boscha, who wasted no time raising her arms in victory.

"At laaaaast!"

The three-eyed witch jumped off the top against Chris' orders, and fell for a bit before she hit the structure, then burst towards the throne room with a big explosion.

Phosphyllite threw the cloak away and grabbed Chris, who took the both of them to Boscha's side as she crash-landed on the pavement, no worse for wear. Then, she stood up, pointed at the crowned person, and exclaimed:

"Take me to your leader!"


End file.
